

Library of Congress. 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



Chap. -_i___4_^_7_^/ 



Shelf 



9 — 404 



july, 1848. 

A LIST OF BOOKS 



RECENTLY PUBLISHED BY 



JAMES MUNROE AND COMPANY, 

134 (OTasSfnflton*, ©pposfte Scfjool Street, 
BOSTON, 

AND LYCEUM BUILDING, CAMBRIDGE. 



« 



I. 

RALPH WALDO EMERSON. Poems. In one vol- 

urae, 16mo. Fourth edition, pp. 251. Price 87 cents. 

ii. 

CHARLES T. BROOKS. Homage of the Arts ; 

with Miscellaneous Pieces from Ruchert, Freiligrath, and other 
German Poets. In one volume, 16mo. pp. 158. Price 62 cents. 

in. 

EPES SARGENT. Songs of the Sea, with Other 

Poems. In one volume, 16mo. pp. 208, 

IV. 

WILLIAM ELLERY CHANNING. Poems. First 

and Second Series. Price 62 cents each. 

v. 

VERSES OF A LIFE-TIME, by Caroline Gilman. 

16mo. In Press. 

VI. 

JOHN PIERPONT. Airs of Palestine, with Other 

Poems. In one volume, 16mo. Steel Plate, pp. 350. Price $1.00. 

VII. 

THE SUNDAY SCHOOL, and OTHER POEMS, by 

William B. Tappan. 16mo. Illuminated Title. 



A LIST OF BOOKS RECENTLY PUBLISHED 

VIII. 

GOETHE AND SCHILLER. Select Minor Poems. 

Translated from the German, with Notes. By John S. Dwight. 16mo. 
pp.460. Price $1.00. 

IX. 

ESSAYS. By Ralph Waldo Emekson. First and 

Second Seiies. Fourth Edition. Revised. 16mo. pp. each 350. Price 
75 cents. Either volume sold separate. 

x. 

CHARLES T. BROOKS. Songs and Ballads. Trans- 

lated from Uhland, Korner, Burger, and other German Lyric Poets. 
With Notes, 12mo. pp. 410. Price $1.00. 

XI. 

CHARLES T. BROOKS. William Tell, a Drama, 

in Five Aets, from the German of Schiller. One volume, 12mo* 
pp. 120. Price 62 cents. 

XII. 

SCHILLER'S WALLENSTEIN. Wallenstein's 

Camp. Translated from the German of Schiller, by George Moir. 
With a Memoir of Albert Wallenstein, by G. W. Haven. 16mo. 
pp. 142. Price 50 cents. 

XIII. 

HENRY TAYLOR. Phillip Van Artevelde, a Dra- 

matic Romance. In one volume, lomo. pp. 252. Price $1.00. 

XIV. 

STEPHEN G. BULFINCH. Lays of the Gospel. 

One volume, 16mo. pp. 206. Price 75 cents. 

xv. 

GOETHE'S EGMONT. Egbiont, a Tragedy in 

Five Acts. Translated from the German. 16mo. pp. 152. Price 38 cents. 

XVI. 

THE BONDMAID. Translated from the Swedish, by 

Mrs. Putnam. One volume, 16mo. pp. 112. Price 50 cents. 

xvii. 

LYDIA H. SIGOURNEY. Pleasant Memories of 

Pleasant Lands. Two Steel Plates. 16mo. pp. 382. Price $1.25. 

XVIII. 

LYDIA H. SIGOURNEY Scenes in my Native 

Land. Two Steel Plates. 16mo. pp. 320. Price $1.25. 



BY JAMES MUNROE AND COMPANY. 



TRANSLATIONS 



i. 
ESSAYS ON ART. Translated from the German of 

Goethe, by Samuel Gray Ward. One volume, ]6mo. pp. 264. 
Price 75 cents. 

ii. 

WALT AND VULT, or THE TWINS. Translated 

from the German of Jean Paul Richter, by Mrs. T. Lee. Two 
volumes, 16mo. pp. 3*20. Price $1.00 each. 



FLOWER, FRUIT, AND THORN PIECES; Or 

the Married LrFE, Death and Wedding of the Advocate of the 
Poor, FIRMIN STANISLAUS SIEBENKAS. Translated from the 
German of Jean Paul Richter, by Edward Henry Noel. Two 
volumes, 16mo. First Series, pp. 348. Second Series, pp. 400. Prico 
$1.00 each. 

IV. 

PHILOSOPHICAL MISCELLANIES. Translated 

from the French of Cousin, Jouffroy, and B. Constant. With Intro- 
ductory and Critical Notices. By George Ripley Twc volumes, 
12mo. pp. 784. Price $1.00 each. 



SELECT MINOR POEMS. Translated from the Ger- 

man of Goethe and Schiller, with Notes. By John S. Dwight. 
One volume, 12mo. pp. 4G0. Price $1.00. 



ECKERMAN'S CONVERSATIONS. Conveesa- 

tions with Goethe in the Last Years of his Life. Translated 
from the German, by S. M. Fuller. One volume, 12mo. pp. 440. 
Price $1.00. 

VII. 

INTRODUCTION TO ETHICS. Including a Criti- 

cal Survey of Moral Systems. Translated from the French of 
Jouffroy, by William H. Channing. Two volumes, 12mo. pp. 732. 
Prince $1.00 each. 

VIII. 

GERMAN LITERATURE. Translated from the 

German of Wolfgang Menzel, by Cornelius C. Felton. Three 
volumes, 12mo. pp. 1172. Price $1.00 each. 



JAMES MUNROE AND COMPANY'S PUBLICATIONS. 



THEODORE, or THE SCEPTIC'S CONVERSION. 

History op the Culture of a Protestant Clergyman. Translated 
from the German of De Wette, by James F. Clarke. Two volumes, 
12mo. pp. 798. Price $1.00 each. 



x. 

HUMAN LIFE ; or Lectures on Practical Ethics. 

Translated from the Germari of De Wette, by Samuel Osgood. Two 
volumes, 12mo. pp. 800. Price $1,00 each. 



XI. 

SONGS AND BALLADS from Uhland, Korner, Biir- 

ger, and other Lyric Poets. Translated from the German, with Notes, 
by Charles T. Brooks. One volume, 12mo. pp. 360. Price $1.00. 



XII. 

THE NEIGHBORS. By Frederika Bremer. Trans- 

lated by Mary Howitt. Two volumes, 12mo. pp. 488. Price 50 cents 
each. 



GERMAN EOMANCE. Specimens of Its Chief Au- 
thors ; with Biographical and Critical Notices. By Thojws Carlyle, 
Two volumes, l2mo. Steel Portrait, pp. 794. Price $1.50 



xiv. 

GUIZOT'S ESSAY. Essay on the Character and 

Influence of Washington in the Revolution of the United 
States of America. Translated from the French by George S. 
Hillard. One volume, 16mo. pp. 204. Price 50 cents. 



xv. 

THE TRUE STORY OF MY LIFE. A Sketch. By 

Hans Christian Anderson. Translated by Mart Howitt. 16mo. 
pp. 306. Price 62 cents. 

xvi. 

HEINE'S LETTERS. Letters Auxiliary to the His- 

tory of Modern Polite Literature in Germany. Translated from the 
German, by G. W. Haven. One volume, 16mo. pp. 172. Price 50 cents 



Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2011 with funding from 
The Library of Congress 



http://www.archive.org/details/sundayschoolotheOOtapp 







THE 


SUNDAY 


SCHOOL 






AND * -.-. 


OTHER 


POEMS. 


BY WILLIAM 


B. TAPPAN. 


BOSTON AND 


CAMBEIDGE: 


JAMES MUNKOE 


AND COMPANY. 


MDCCCXLVIH. 

, , , .- , , j 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1848, 

By WILLIAM BINGHAM TAPPAN, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 



STEREOTYPED BY 8. N. DICKINSON, BOSTON. 



n 



hi 



The "Sunday School and Other Poems," is 
the fourth and concluding volume of a series, embracing 
my revised Poems; of which, "Poetry of the Heart," 
"i Sacred and Miscellaneous Poems," and " Poetry 
of Life," are the first, second, and third. 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS 



PAGE. 

Alexander Henry, 67 

Aspirations in the Pulpit, • 236 

Beverly, 156 

Bible, 190 

Burman's Question, ■ 113 

By whom of all thy chosen, Lord, 245 

Castaway, 115 

Chinese Lady, 118 

Cholera, — in prospect of its second invasion, 138 

Deaf and Dumb, 193 

December, • 187 

Flagstaff, 224 

Freedom's Hymn, for the Fourth of July, 89 

Girard College, Philadelphia, 96 

Go ! Dream of by-past Hours, 239 

G , an advocate for Temperance, who, by conspiracy, was deceived 

into a temporary relapse, 232 

Grace and Position, 70 

Harriet Newell, 180 

Hymn, — sung by the Congregation of Pine Street Church, Boston, 

May 14, 1848, 222 



VI INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



PAGE. 

Hymn of Welcome, — on the return of a Pastor from Europe and 

Asia, • • 107 

Hymn, — sung at the Celebration of the Leland Family, at Sherburne, 109 
Hymn, — sung at the Installation of Rev. S. Hutchins, late Missionary 

to India ; at South Brookfield, Mass. Sept. 15, 1847, ■ 133 

Hymn for the Millennium, 219 

Invocation, • • » • • • 247 

J— A— , 123 

John Eliot, of Roxbury, , 198 

La Lanterne vs. La Guillotine, • • ■ 151 

Lazarus, • • • • • « « 181 

L e A F , • 125 

Lines, — on receiving from the author a copy of " Scenes in the Holy 

Land, • • • 173 

Looking to the Cross — Looking to Jesus, 129 

Lucy Ann, at Sixteen, • • • • • 240 

Millennial Morn ! thy rosy beams, • 244 

Mother, 204 

Mrs. Mary E. Van Lennep, — on reading her Memoir by her Mother, • 111 

My Children, 93 

Stars ! 105 

Ordination Hymn, « 131 

Parting Hymn, — sung by the Pupils of Phillips Academy, Andover, 

at the Annual Examination, 1847, • ■ 87 

Poet, 213 

Portents, • • 209 

Prayer for a Son at Sea, • 159 

Presbyterian, 197 

Psalm of Remembrance, « 175 

Queen Victoria's Fancy Dress Ball, • « • • • 216 

Religion and Rum, . . 242 

Retrospective, ■ 185 

Rev. Messrs. Dr. B and G— , of England, 145 

Rev. Paul Couch, of Newburyport, 201 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



Vll 



PAGE. 

Sapphic for Thanksgiving, 97 

Silent Street, - 80 

Sin, 249 

Slips, 234 

Stanzas, 143 

Strange Things, 195 

Sunday School, 13 

Take Wings ! 205 

Temperance Jubilee Hymn, 230 

" That is able to keep you from Falling," 74 

To a Deaf and Dumb Girl, 91 

Traits of Nature. • • • 164 

True Science, 238 

Two Ships, 77 

Unspoken at Sea, 169 

Verses, — occasioned by the imprisonment of Rev. G C , 

at the suit of a Rum-distilling Deacon. 228 

Verses — written after hearing the Speeches in Faneuil Hall, on a late 

Anniversary occasion, • 139 

Voice of the Sea, 118 

Waiting for the Grave, 85 

What shall we have ? • 199 

When Morning breaks upon the Night, < 135 

Which? • 208 

Whitefield, — on seeing his remains in their resting-place at New- 

buryport, Mass., Sept. 11, 1837, ■ 189 

Winter, • 127 

Ye Spirits of the Just that Soar, 83 



INDEX OP FIRST LINES. 



PAGE. 

A Mother's Love — how great that Love, 204 

And this was Whitefield, 189 

A Vessel on the Deeps, 77 

" Away to the Lanterne," ■ 151 

Bethany ! on thy site, as travellers tell, 181 

By whom of all thy chosen, Lord, 245 

Child ! remember thy Creator, • 175 

Could I name every curious root, 238 

Farewell, December ! cheerless as thou art, 187 

Go ! dream of by-past hours, • • • • • 239 

He sat with men whose high debate, 67 

He, who recalled from Gentile lands, "133 

His current name that graced for years a Bank, • • • • 96 

His Ministers, as fiery flames, 131 

How blessed the heir, unvexed by trouble, • • • 143 

How many, that a few months since, 185 



INDEX OF FIRST LINES. IX 

PAGE. 

I grieve not Heaven to thee denies, 91 

I knew her not ; — a fountain here, • HI 

I marvel at thy curious mien, 148 

Immortal Sin, of heavenly birth ! 249 

In Boston is a street — about a rod, • • - 80 

I sing of her whom Heaven has called to win, 13 

Men, crossing the blue wave, have told, 113 

Millennial Morn ! thy rosy beams, 244 

My God, do lips wake martial story, • • • • 209 

My prayer goes up this Sabbath morn, 159 

Night's dream pursueth me by day, 166 

Not so ! in unambitious day, 197 

Book ! that bright and burning Day, 190 

God of Bethel ! from thy hands, 109 

God, to Thee, from whom so long, 219 

Jesus, while implores, • 236 

Saviour ! Thou ! the Hope and Stay, 224 

Oh Stars ! upon the brow of night, 105 

On this " broad platform " grimly stand, 139 

' ; Scenes in the Holy Land ! " and I have walked 173 

She has gone from our sight, 125 

Sit on thy throne, Imperial Dame, 216 

Stranger ! that in this Isle-of-Franee, 180 

Take wings ! take wings ! and seek the lost, 205 

Temptation, toil and suffering here, ■ • • 70 

That is able to keep me, an ignorant child, • 74 

That thou wast loved, and still hast part, 222 

The Christian flouts the turbaned Turk, 242 

The dying Papist clasps the Cross, 129 



INDEX OF FIRST LINES. 



PAGE. 

The flames advance with sweeping stride,- ....... «... 164 

The ibol, who counts by millions yellow wealth, - >• • 123 

The man whose aflliction his fellow had been, 201 

Then Peter said to Jesus, " All we 've left," 199 

The patriot sires in glory sleep, 89 

There are, who leaving house and lands, 198 

The sinner says : " Let Evil rule,"- 208 

" The Soul, immortal as its Sire," 107 

The waves of passion may be stayed, • • ' 1J8 

They say 't is dangerous to ascend, • 234 

They 've thrust him in the inner cell, - 228 

Thou 'st snatched the youth from Ruin's grave, 115 

'T is strange that I should plant or build, 195 

Victim of malice — not of lust, 232 

i 

Wearied with play, that night, my sweet first-born, 85 

We ask Thee not, God ! to bow, 247 

What boots it that yon green hill-side, ( 230 

Wlien evil and good were in Eden discovered, 87 

When morning breaks upon the night,- 135 

When the old Fathers of New England, • • 97 

While opens, Lucy Ann, on you, > 240 

Why do n't one of the thousand ships, 169 

Winter ! there are among the race of men, • • • 127 

With what a calm and self-confiding gait, • 138 

Ye are alive to bliss, my boys ! 93 

Ye cultivated minds, that know, 193 

Ye spirits of the Just, that soar, 83 

Yet no true Poet would resign, • 213 

Ye 've sought our Western shore, ■ 145 

Yon starry world hath them received, 156 



THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 



THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 



I sing of her whom Heaven has called to win 
Renown from conflict and a world from sin ; 
Whose name inspires affection and respect ; 
Whose firm, yet quiet influence has checked 
The rising; floods of ignorance and shame : 
A victor, where the spoils are more than fame ; 
A friendly beacon on the dangerous coast, 
Where ships are wrecked and mariners are lost ; 
A blessed star that watches o'er the way 
Where perils wait, and heedless travellers stray ; 
The powerful empress of persuasive rule — - 
The unassuming, noble Sunday School ! 
2 



14 THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 

The glorious Gospel follows where the ban 
Pursues his step and rests on sinning man ; 
The Gospel streams in rich abundance flow, 
Whose tides can change his crimson into snow; 
The Gospel's trump proclaims deliverance nigh 
For souls appointed in their guilt to die ; 
The Gospel breaks the sighing prisoner's chain, 
And pours its balm on every mental pain ; 
By various methods is its knowledge spread, 
By various calls it wakes the sleeping dead ; 
The Pulpit speaks, and argument has power 
To rouse the moments of a careless hour ; 
In fireside talk the little child is stirred 
By some fond, faithful Mother's gentle word;- — 
And hearts are moulded to the happy rule 
Of true religion in the Sunday School. 

The Sunday School! — In Puritanic times, 
The days of Dilworth and of nursery rhymes, 
When fancy yielded to the Dreamer's art, 
And I to Bunyan freely gave my heart. 
And early read, and, sleepless, studied late, 
To reach with Christian the celestial gate, 
And helped him as I could in doubtful strife, 
And battled Death, to gain Eternal Life, — 



THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 



15 



Fought, as the Pilgrim fought, incarnate Sin, 
And stabbed the fiend Apollyon with a pin, — 
Surveyed the black, strong currents with a shiver, 
Yet heard the notes from golden trumpets quiver, 
And wished I too were past the deep cold river! 
Or, pondering o'er the Primer's rude designs, 
I learned by heart the Primer's ruder lines, 
And wept John Roger's doom — the best of men — 
Yet wondered if his babes were nine or ten ! — 
Or drew sweet fictions — just like simple facts — 
From Hannah More's Repository Tracts, — 
Of Giles the Poacher, Tawney Rachel's reign, 
And the good Shepherd of the Salisbury Plain, — 
Or, as the Sabbath hours began to fail, 
Threw books aside, and begged a Bible tale 
Of her, who never could my suit deny, 
Who watched me with a mother's heart and eye — 
I say, in Puritanic times 'twas thought [nought, 
When God, the Builder, called the earth from 
He made the Sabbath, and ordained it " Blest ! " 
And then made Adam for the Day of Rest. 



" Children of parents, passed into the skies ! " 
Regard me not with stern or doubtful eyes ; 
Reverence for them I lessen not in you — 



16 THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 

Those martexts were the Pharisaic few. 
" The Sabbath Day is wisely made for man/' 
Our fathers said : " Yet," said the Puritan : 
" Other than worship for the meeting hours, 
" And books at home, be far from us and ours ! 
" Other than conning catechetic lines, 
"Drawn by the good Assembly of Divines, 
"And sitting still, the long and solemn Day, 
" Eschewing naughty Cheerfulness alway, — 
" By children practised, will insult His claims, 
"Whose Law is guarded by a thousand flames." 

Forgive their error ! — ours, that differs wide, 
Leans not, too often, to Religion's side. 
Blessed was the spirit of that olden time ! 
Sundays were ladders for the soul to climb, 
When she would scale and leap the crystal gates, 
Where Love to crown the bold invader waits. 
In the aroma of these riper hours 
We merge the sweetness of those early flowers. 
Will children, now, peruse the lines of grace 
Where children read them, in a Mother's face ? 
Will she resume inalienable rule, 
Unwisely yielded to the Sunday School ? 
Again invite her offspring to her side, 



THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 



17 



And print on yielding hearts the Crucified? 
With pleasant words, celestial truths instill, 
That mould Affection, Intellect, and Will? 
The words, in folly's path, forgotten never ! — 
The truths that live, in spite of sin, forever! — 
Why look abroad for precept that has birth, 
Where God ordained it, at the sacred hearth? 
Why send the little wanderers out for store 
Of flowers that climb and nestle round your door? 
Can hearts and lips, though, prophet-like, they glow 
With living fire, a Parent's ardor know? 
May one, endued with super-human grace 
To lead immortals, take the Mother's place? 
The Sunday School! — I will not yield her claim 
To shine with others of exalted name, 
That, as bright beams, are glancing round the world, 
Dispersing Error where its cloud is curled; 
Yet, as the myriad drops of morning dew, 
Should Sunday Schools in number rise to view, 
Studding the city like the starry gems, — 
Blazing, where forests wear their diadems, — 
Investing frozen Labrador with charms, — 
Soothing, forever, China's rude alarms, — ■ 
Sprinkling with grace imperial Rangoon, — 
Blessing with freedom Africa's Wednoon, — 
2* 



18 THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 

And in barbaric uttermost Japan, 

Transforming devilish cannibals to Man,— 

And causing wilderness and prairie here, 

To bloom with roses as the sweet Cashmere,— 

My aspiration would be, " Let them die ! 

Their very name in deep oblivion lie ! 

If, at the cost of Home's instruction fed, 

They lift, like parasites, unworthy head, 

And basely thrive upon the Children's Bread ! " * 

Lo ! the fair gardens of the Church invite 

His gracious step whose path is tracked in light. 

Awake, North Wind ! — Come, thou South ! and 

That fragrant spices may for Jesus flow. [blow, 

# " Home must be made the most attractive spot on earth. 
Both parents must labor to make it so. Fathers must cultivate 
in themselves a childlike love to the Great Father, and then they 
will have that kindness and simplicity which attracts, and that 
elevation of feeling which secures the respect of children. But 
if business is allowed to consume the time and heart of the 
heaven-appointed governors and teachers of children ; if religion 
is to take the form of out-door effort, and pecuniary contribution, 
solely; if we are to trust to public and Sunday Schools to do 
what does not pertain to them, what shall hinder the utter 
degeneracy of the entire people, or the righteous indignation of 
Heaven from inflicting upon us the judgments which have de- 
stroyed other nations ? V — Rev. E. N. Kirk. 

" Religion never thoroughly penetrates life till it becomes do- 
mestic. Like the patriotic fire, which makes a nation invinci- 
ble, it never burns with inextinguishable devotion till it burns 
at the hearth." — Rev. Dr. Bushnell. 



THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 19 

Ye gardens, perish ! if your plants of pride 
Are rifled from their soil, — the Mother's side ! 

And yet it needs not that the Sunday School 
Should cross, or weaken Home's superior rule. 
The generous Teacher, taught himself by grace, 
Only confirms the faithful Parent's place ; 
Usurps no power, but aids the patient toil 
That turns the furrow in the goodly soil ; 
With wisest care and well directed lore, 
Deepens the truth, securely lodged before; 
Watches the seed that takes its vigorous root; 
Rejoices o'er the blossoms, leaves, and fruit ; 
And sees, at length, the noble plant arise, 
With all a Parent's fond exulting eyes. 
Thou ! thus purveying for the watchful skies, — 
Thou ! thus commissioned, in the vineyard found, — 
Sunday School Teacher ! occupying ground 
On which to gaze might Heaven incline from bliss — 
Art thou sufficient for a work like this ? 

The artless girl behold ! — behold the boy ! 
Thou lookest at innocence without alloy ; 
Transparent rectitude is in that breast ; — 
The peaceful dove builds there its quiet nest ; — 



Ah no ! — the swelling, bursting seeds of sin, 
That sprout to evil, germinate within. 
'Tis thine, with heart and spirit, sanctified, 
To come in contact with this hateful pride ; 
And, by the help of overpowering Grace, 
Subdue the passions that usurp God's place. 
To aid thee are appliances at hand, 
Enough, and more, to renovate the land. 
Say, with munitions adequate as these, 
Why are not rebels humbled on their knees ? 
In dust, why may not weeping children lie, 
As, with compassions, Jesus passes by — 
And the dull Church, so deaf to duty's calls, 
Rouse, as " hosannas " shake her slumbering walls — 
The Children's welcome — taught by Love the art ? 
Why, Teacher ! why ? — is 't want in thee of heart ? 
He who has led a lamb to Jesus' fold, 
And one more happy name for heaven enrolled, 
Has set in motion influence, ceasing never ! 
Has opened streams of joy that flow forever ! 

There is, to win, beyond mere human skill, 
A power that touches and subdues the will 
To sweet instruction. ■ — She, whose humble seat 
Is found on Sundays at the Children's feet, — 



THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 21 

Her " flute-like " voice explaining holy lore, 

Of which her soul and intellect have store, — 

Her object lowly, yet too high for pride, — 

Her perfect pattern, the dear Crucified, — 

Sees ever in the pupil's beaming face, 

If in that pupil glows one spark of grace — 

Deep lines of thought, and in the kindling eye, 

A soul that questions, and that prompts reply. 

From heart to heart electric errands go, 

And high communion child and teacher know ; 

The gentle words that to the learner call, 

With reflex influence on the teacher fall ; 

While tears of strange and sacred pleasure show 

The fellowship of Heaven begun below ! 

This, this is Mind with Mind communing; this 

The foretaste, given, of immortal bliss ; — 

A holy Daniel or anointed Paul 

Thus takes the child at mercy's earliest call, 

Directs its tiny footsteps to the throne, 

And sees it crowned with glories like his own. 

" The day of small things " some affect to spurn : 
Such at the Sunday School may lesson learn ; 
May see how Heaven prepares from lowly things 
Exalted honors for the King of kings. 



A few poor children, gathered in a room, 
An humble woman teaches ; — one, whose loom 
Was heard in busy motion all the week — 
She now imparts, with looks and language meek, 
The simple lesson, nor to swear nor steal ; 
And teaches knees, that never bowed, to kneel. 
She bids the uncouth and semi-barbarous, take 
A decent garb, for Decency's mere sake ; — - 
And, as shine down on intellects, opaque, 
Some gentle rays, the rescued hasten on, 
Till, leaving Egypt, they have Goshen won; 
Where coruscations of pure knowledge meet 
Around the head and bathe in light the feet. 
Such is the story of the Sunday School, 
And none will chide its moral but the fool. 

Immortal he,* whose pitying eye surveyed 
The dreadful wreck by Sin and Misery made ! 



* " In 1781 - 82 an errand led Eobert Baikes into a neigh- 
borhood in his native city of Gloucester, England, which was 
inhabited chiefly by the lowest class of laborers in a manufac- 
tory, whose children, from six to twelve or fourteen years of age, 
were running wild in the street. He was told that on the Lord's 
day, when all ages and classes were free from employment and 
restraint, their noise and blasphemy were insufferable. Farmers 
and others, in the neighboring towns and villages, complained of 
the depredations upon their property as more frequent and bold 



THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 23 

Whose love was prompt; whose zeal was all engaged 
To meet the war with Vice and Error waged ; 
In that fierce battle to sustain the Right, 
And chase to hell the empire of old Night. 
He saw not that his unobtrusive scheme, 
Which pleased his fancy, partly like a dream, 
Would substance take so soon ; take wings and fiy — 
The Principle of Life where children die. 
Oh, who shall influence ever wield like this? 
To millions opening founts of perfect bliss ! — 
Who wake such hope, and widely spreading power 
Of glorious good, increasing every hour, — 
All unconfined to climate, sea, or shore, — 
Still rising, swelling, flowing, evermore ! 

Nor could the treasure noble Raikes had found 
Enrich, alone, his native English ground. 

on that day than on all the rest of the days of the week. To 
remedy these evils, persons duly qualified were hired, at twenty- 
two cents a day, to open schools for two hours in the morning 
and afternoon ; to receive and instruct the ignorant in the art of 
reading ; to teach the catechism, and to lead them to church. — 
Mr. Raikes's experiment was entirely successful; his plan was 
approved by some of the most wise and eminent men in the 
country ; similar schools were established in other districts, and, 
in 1811, at least 300,000 children were reported as members of 
these schools." — Teacher Taught ; published by the Am. S. S. 
Union. 



24 THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 

The gift to us some friendly herald brought; 
By elder Britain was Columbia taught. * 
Yet here, at first, the timid stranger saw 
Reserve and doubt — for such is Yankee law. 
" She comes to us in fair and winning guise ; 
Yet to be wary, may perhaps be wise." 
" The Sunday School ? — 't is well — a pretty plan," 
The Pastor said — and said the good old man, 

* " The first Sunday School of which we have any knowl- 
edge in this country, was the one established by Ludwig Thacker, 
as early as the middle of the last century ; preceding the schools 
of Raikes in England by thirty or forty years. This was in the 
town of Ephrata, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. In 1788 
Bishop Asbury, it is said, organized a school of this kind in Han- 
over, Virginia. In December, 1790, incipient measures were 
adopted in Philadelphia, for ' The First Day or Sunday School 
Society.' On the 11th of January succeeding, the officers were 
elected, and the society fully organized. In 1797, a Sunday 
School was established at Pawtucket, R. I., a manufacturing 
village, and opened for the benefit of the many operatives there. 
This school, like those previously established in Philadelphia, 
was probably designed chiefly for secular, rather than solely for 
religious instruction. A School, for religious instruction on the 
Sabbath, was instituted August 22d, 1809, in Pittsburg, Pennsyl- 
vania. This school coincided in its principal features with the 
Sabbath Schools at present established. In 1810, a Sunday 
School was commenced in Beverly, Massachusetts, by two young 
ladies ; one of whom is yet living. They collected a number of 
children, for the purpose of bestowing gratuitous instruction, and 
continued the school, without aid, for many years. Sunday 
Schools were subsequently organized, at various periods, in other 
cities and towns of the United States." — Fray's History of 
Sunday Schools. 



THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 25 

" 'T is ornamental to the house of prayer, 
Just like the carpet on my pulpit stair." 
But when he saw its high results disclose, 
Indifference ceased, and generous ardor rose. 
"The Sunday School! a liberal plan, I hold, 
To win the lambs that bleat around the fold. 
My slender judgment here was surely wrong; 
Our Zion's pillar, she, — erect and strong." 

Yet, chiefly mark ! a wondrous labor done 
Within the Church; — the mingling into one 
Consenting minds, of creed diverse ; their aim 
To spread the savor of Immanuel's Name; — 
To scatter glory round a world of shame. 
Like our uncounted leaping springs, that tend 
Seaward and with receiving ocean blend, 
These, as they brightly pass to climes above, 
Merge by the way their currents into Love ; 
True emblem of the sea without a shore, 
Whose waves embrace and kiss forevermore. 

The Church is up from slumber, dust, and tears ! 
She breaks the spell of eighteen hundred years ! 
By bold aggression, to retrieve her loss, — • 
By Union, bring our planet to the Cross. 
3 



26 THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 

In beauty, towering 'mid the sister band 

Whose peaceful triumphs ring through every land, 

Who wear American upon their crest, 

Behold the Pioneer of all the rest ! * [pall ! — 

Sunday School Union ! f — words that never 

In music's witchery on the heart they fall ! 

* The eminent value of the Sunday School as a Pioneer. — " A~ 
gentleman, long resident in Mississippi, and who has travelled 
extensively over all parts of it, speaks of the great difficulties 
which must be encountered in introducing religious institutions 
into the State ; ' but,' he says, ' if we get the whole people once 
aroused in the work, they will contribute largely, and the cause 
of Christ will advance more rapidly through the Sunday School 
as an instrumentality, than any and all other influences.' " 

t The American Sunday School Union was organized in 
Philadelphia, May 1824. It has five specific objects, namely : 

I. To concentrate the efforts of Sabbath School Societies in 
different sections of our country. 

II. To strengthen the hands of the friends of religious instruc- 
tion on the Lord's day. 

III. To disseminate useful information. 

IV. To circulate moral and religious publications in every part 
of the land. And, lastly, though chiefly, 

V. To endeavor to plant a Sunday School wherever there is a 
population. 

In the first place — " to concentrate the efforts of Sunday 
School Societies in the different sections of our country.'''' 

By uniting the Schools in a large district under a general 
board, it was thought that a convenient medium of intercourse 
would be secured, and that the efforts of all might be directed 
to one and the same end, and be sustained by a common sym- 
pathy ; and by uniting these general boards with a national so- 
ciety, upon terms mutually advantageous, we hoped still further 



THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 27 

I know her name! — her toils and objects know, — 
They are but one — inviting Heaven below. 
"To Try" — the happy secret of her art, 
She takes no royal road to reach the heart. 
She brings no plans — impossible but new. 
Her work is sure, yet noiseless as the dew. 

to concentrate and harmonize our counsels, while at the same 
time we made arrangements to furnish promptly and on the 
cheapest terms, such facilities in the shape of reward books, 
tickets, &c, as were at that period in use. 

The correctness of these views was shown conclusively, in 
the eagerness with which the proposed connection was sought, — 
for it may probably be said, without exaggeration, that at one 
time nineteen twentieths of all the Sunday Schools in the country 
were connected with us. In process of time, however, single 
Schools or small Associations were merged in County or State 
Societies, and many were embraced in denominational organiza- 
tions. The whole number of Schools and Societies which have 
been recognized as auxiliaries, is 1364. 

II. The second object was u to strengthen the hands of the 
friends of religious education on the Lord's day.'' 1 This we 
could do chiefly by maturing a practicable and efficient system 
of instruction, adapted to the general wants of the country — 
furnishing means of improvement to such as would serve as 
active laborers, and those excitements to zeal and diligence which 
the progress of the work might suggest. 

The results of our enterprise in this respect, are seen, not only 
in our fifteen volumes of Questions, of which considerably more 
than a million of copies have been circulated — in our various 
Helps to the understanding of the sacred volume, and the proper 
mode of teaching it — in our Geographies, Dictionaries, and Maps 
— in our works, illustrative of the Jewish religion and history, 
and the manners and customs of Oriental nations ; but they are 



28 THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 

Her simple motto, you in Nature find, 
"Just as the twig is bent the tree's inclined." 
To snatch from trees a lesson, come with me ! 
And in the gorgeous Western Valley see, 

also seen in the valuable manuals and text-books which have 
issued in later years from other sources, and in the elaborate and 
expensive volumes of commentaries and annotations upon the 
Scriptures, which have been prepared by devout and learned 
men, with special reference to the wants of Sunday School 
Teachers and juvenile Biblical students. If, to supply proper 
materials and tools for their work, be to strengthen the hands of 
the builders, then have we succeeded in this part of our original 
design. 

III. The third item was " to disseminate useful information.''' 1 
The extent to which this has been done it is impossible to 
state with accuracy. The eight octavo volumes of our Maga- 
zine; the four volumes of the Sunday School Journal, in the 
largest newspaper form, succeeded by thirteen volumes of the re- 
duced size, contain together an amount of facts, reasonings, illus- 
trations, and statistics upon the subject of Christian education, 
not easily accessible elsewhere, in the same compass. The an- 
nual sermons, by clergymen of various denominations, constitute 
a volume of peculiar value, setting forth the views entertained 
by men of different ecclesiastical relations, residing in different 
sections of the country, and treating the subject according to 
their various apprehensions of its connections and bearings. The 
Annual Reports make up several volumes of no inconsiderable 
size and importance. The Reports of public meetings, and a 
variety of Pamphlets explaining our design and object, and de- 
fending the principles of the Society, have been widely circu- 
lated, and we may safely say, that altogether we have materials 
of this kind for at least forty-five or fifty large octavo volumes, 
parts of which have been circulated by thousands and tens of 
thousands in all the inhabited parts of our land. To all this we 



THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 29 

Not the apologies for trees tliat deck 
Our own Piscataqua and Kennebeck,— 
But the majestic white-armed sycamore, 
Or cypress, guarding Mississippi's shore. 

may add the labors of several hundred Missionaries and Agents, 
who have traversed the country in the Society's service, and 
disseminated information by means of sermons, addresses, and 
conversations ; to say nothing of ministers and others who have 
advocated our cause in public and private. 

IV. The fourth particular of the design was "to circulate 
?noral and religious 'publications in every part of the land ; " and 
by the good hand of God upon us, we have succeeded in circu- 
lating above twenty millions of such publications, including each 
distinct article in our catalogue. 

It would be interesting to follow each one of these twenty 
millions of Scriptural publications through the various channels 
of its circulation, and mark the traces of its benign influence 
upon the hearts and conduct of individuals — upon the church — 
upon private character and the public welfare. It would be still 
more interesting to trace the history of each volume, from the 
first conception of the subject in the mind of the author to the 
last perceptible results of its publication. But such a privilege 
can be enjoyed by no finite mind. That the American Sunday 
School Union has been the instrument of calling into exercise 
so much of talents, industry, ingenuity, and piety, as have been 
employed in the preparation of several hundred original manu- 
scripts, making as many bound volumes upon our catalogue, and 
that it has been the means of introducing so extensively the sys- 
tem of libraries, and in supplying the young in so considerable a 
measure with appropriate religious reading, are among the claims 
upon our gratitude. 

It is an interesting fact, that the plan of District School Li- 
braries was suggested in our periodicals as early as 1826, and we 
do not think it arrogant to claim that the influence of Sunday 

3* 



30 THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 

One such, a father in those forests saw, 
"Where only such acknowledge Nature's law ; 
And bade his little sprightly son behold 
Its arrowy straightness and its aspect bold ; 

Schools and Sunday School Libraries is distinctly visible in the 
present demand, for cheap popular libraries for common Schools. 
Would to God we could be farther instrumental in turning into 
one channel the two streams which seem to have taken their rise 
in the same fountain, causing them to flow as the waters of sal- 
vation to the ends of the earth ! 

V. The fifth and last, and most important design of the or- 
ganization, was " to plant a Sunday School wherever there is a 
populationy 

Though this phraseology is general enough to embrace the 
globe, it has been confined by repeated construction to the United 
States. For several years past our attention has been directed 
chiefly to the Western and Southern States, and considering our 
measure of means, our success has been much greater than could 
have been reasonably expected. 

As to the feasibility of the Western supply, and the peculiar 
fitness of our Institution to furnish it, the mind of our Board has 
never wavered for a moment. We have realized no difficulties of 
which we did not distinctly apprize the community at the outset, 
and the work done in that interesting section of our country has 
stood to the utmost extent of our expectations. 

This wide territory will, in a fleeting day, be studded with 
cities and towns, adorned with temples of justice, learning, and 
religion, and crowded with busy millions of our fellow men. Its 
waters will be traversed by boats or be connected by railroads 
and canals. The plough and the shuttle, mercantile enterprise, 
and mechanical industry and ingenuity, will soon work the won- 
ders there which they have wrought everywhere else. The man 
that is to mete out justice and right, to minister at the altar, and 
to exert a commanding influence over the minds of his fellow 



THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 31 

How consciously it looked in grandeur down, 

And wore the leafy kingdom's royal crown. 

"Now," said the parent, "William! only see 

What's that so like and yet unlike a tree, 

That rises shortly from its mother-root, 

And then turns off in angle, quite acute? 

So gnarled and crooked, crossgrained, coarse and 

So knotty, stubby, twisted, stunted, tough ; [rough, 

With beauty none ; with ugliness enough ; 

So wicked, too, — if graceless trees may sin — 

It never can the least affection win?" 



citizens — where is he now? Perhaps trundling a hoop — per- 
haps riding a plough horse — perhaps in a public school — pos- 
sibly in a Sunday School. But, wherever he is, and whatever he 
does, what can be more important than that he should be taught 
to love truth, to do justly, to be temperate, to be obedient to 
those that have the rule over him — in a word, to be made familiar 
with the principles of eternal truth and justice which the Bible 
alone reveals, and which are the foundation and sanction of all 
governments, human and divine, personal and social ? And this 
is the very object at which we aim — and unless all analogy, and 
all experience, and all philosophy are at fault when their axioms 
are applied to the discipline of a little child, it is an exalted and 
an attainable end. Look at the Samuels and Joshuas, or the 
Absaloms and Ahabs of the past or the present age, and they 
will show us that whatever there is, strikingly beautiful or strik- 
ingly deformed, in the picture of manhood, is the result of the 
few first strokes of the pencil, and not of elaborate correction 
and perfect finish. — Documents of the American Sunday School 
Union. 



32 THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 

Both gazed with curious and with scornful eyes, 
And both agreed the monster to despise. 
" Now, William, think ! — and answer give to me — 
How could a sapling ever yield such tree? 
What power of evil interposed a change 
To pain the eye with growth, so vile and strange ? " 
"I cannot tell," the youngster gravely said, 
And stopped, and laughed, and tost his curly head — 
"I cannot tell — unless some clown, quite mellow, 
Stept on him when he was a little fellow ! " 
The motto 's true, that we in Nature find : 
"Just as the twig is bent, the tree's inclined." 
While some, impelled by whim or pity, seek 
To crush the strong and elevate the weak, 
And old tried paths abandon for the new, 
And schemes Utopian mingle with the true ; 
The schemes that, sparkling like the sungilt dew, 
Like dew dissolve — She brings her Plan to sight, 
All bathed in Truth and lucid as it3 light ; 
And taking burden pride disdains to bear, 
She makes the Children her peculiar care. * 

* " A young German philanthropist, in seeking to carry ""out a 
favorite plan of benevolence towards the rising race, applied to 
the American Sunday School Union for help, because it is ' The 
Society that takes care of the Children.' " — Twenty-third An- 
nual Report. 



THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 33 

" Takes care of the Children ! " — there 's many 

To sneer at a mission so small ; 
Thank God, in earth's famine, for any 

Cheap crumbs of his mercy that fall ! 
For the crying-out wide desolations, 

In Zion a table is spread; — 
Coming up are the hungry by nations ; 

But where shall the Children be fed? 

'T is noble — sublimity 's in it, 

When Charity maketh her proof, 
And " speech " " resolution " and " minute " 

Stir arches of Exeter-roof; — 
By gold, and a word, are at pleasure 

The Cross and the Lion unfurled, 
To take of Idolatry measure, 

And vanquish for Jesus the world. 

To contest, so brilliant and pleasant, 

Let princes and emperors lead; — 
Be lifeguards of noblemen present, 

And prelates and baronets bleed; — 
We ask not, we wish not to battle 

With them; but our disciplined band 
Marshal onwards, and where the shots rattle 

Behold us ! the Infantry stand ! 



34 THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 

In the plebian suburbs of Glos'ter, 

More glory and royalty meet 
Round him, who was eager to foster 

The children that troubled the street; — 
Aye, nobler, sublimer, and better 

Her office and honors, we see, 
Who, patiently, letter by letter, 

Here teaches the child at the knee. 

"Takes care of the Children!" — where growing 
In August are vintage and corn, 
Who gazes and thinks of the sowing 
Of sweet little April with scorn? 
16 Small things " may be jeered by the scoffer, 
Yet drops, that in buttercups sleep, 
Make showers; — and what would he offer 
But sand, as a wall for the deep ? 

u Takes care of the Children ! " — nor wasted 

Is care on the weakest of these; 
The culturer the product has tasted, 

And found it the palate to please. 
There are sheaves pushing higher and faster, 

And Age has more branches and roots,— 
But dearer are none to the Master 

Than Childhood, in blossoms and fruits! 



THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 35 

Our life is no " dream " — we began it 

In tears, and on Time's narrow brink, 
' Till farewells we wave to this planet, 

We must wake up and labor and think, — 
And effort concentrate, not scatter, 

On objects all worthy of us ; — 
Where and how, we perceive is no matter, 

Only blessing fix deep for the curse. 

Yet, as choice in the vineyard's permitted, 

Where labor is never in vain, 
And patience and prayer, unremitted, 

At last yield the harvest of grain — 
In a world where the brambles oft sting us, 

'T is well to choose pleasantest bowers ; — 
"Taking care of the Children" will bring us 

The nearest to Heaven and Flowers ! 

The Union sends abroad the printed page, 
For Childhood traced by intellectual Age. 
Sagacious minds have analyzed the task 
How to reply when little children ask. 
And he who answers, to be understood, 
And kindly answers, as the Teacher should, 
When Children ask, accomplishes some good. 



36 THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 

In such memorials men have shrined a name, — ■ 
Their labored folios all unknown to fame. 
So Watts forever to the Church belongs, 
Not in his "Ethics," but in "Moral Songs." 
The written page, submitted in divan, 
The critic's eye impartially must scan. 
Not the Reviewer's, who through dulness wades, 
Till dull himself, he sends it to the shades; 
But theirs, of liberal and approved good sense, 
Who give the priceless toil without expense. 
Of various sects, yet Truth discerning well, 
Which wise men purchase and will never sell. 
Truth, that from Wickliffe, Luther, Zwingle, Huss, 
Through Reformation's portal came to us. 
The offered volume must the doctrines show 
That like pure waters sparkle as they flow; — 
The flaming sword revealing in each line, 
WTiose two edged lightnings cut as well as shine. 
No careless labor, huddled up in haste ; 
Of dreamy words, no vapid barren waste, 
To please a spoiled Humanitarian taste. 
Nor what the Fathers, or the Rabbis preach, 
But the plain lessons Jesus loved to teach. 
The Union's model, for ingenuous youth, 
Dwarfs not — she deems — one precious, vital truth, 



THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. ol 

Nor shuts one out. — The Bible rules are few, 
That show us what to shun, and what to do. 
The Way of Life is clearly pointed out, 
And none, who seek, of that bright path may doubt ; 
Yet none can show the Scripture-flag unfurled 
With one poor Shibboleth to divide the world. 
Thus, well approved, nor word nor sentence past 
Un weighed, unnoted — 'tis a Book at last; 
And takes its station where, in beauteous line, 
Six hundred sisters of the household shine ; 
That, not as beauties, range in idle show, 
But as untiring messengers will go 
The Leaves of Healing for each moral woe — 
To every clime that owns a human ill — 
To icy Greenland and the warm Brazil ; 
Where polar Arctic and Antarctic freeze, — 
Where sunny islands dot the Southern Seas. * 

* " The amount of books, &c, distributed during the year 
from the Home Depository, and by its branches and agents, was 
one hundred and ten thousand, nine hundred and sixteen dollars 
twelve cents. Eighty-two new publications have been added to 
our Catalogue the last year. Some of these are of an elementary 
character ; others are of a grade suited to the most vigorous and 
best cultivated minds. They make an addition of seven thousand 
nine hundred and twenty-two pages to our plates ; or forty new 
18mo volumes, averaging two hundred pages each, to the attract- 
ive religious reading of the times." — Twenty-third Annual Re- 
port of the American Sunday School Union, 

4 



38 



THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 






Come ! — for her work is twofold — - come ! and 
In some fair garden of the glorious West. [rest 
Yet how may fancy ever fondly hope, 
Cribbed as she is in this Atlantic slope — 
To seize the beauties, as they lie exprest 
In lovely colors, on the glorious West? 
Of rivers, forests, prairies, mountains, lakes, 
Of rich savannas, and luxuriant brakes — 
And, more than all, the nestling spots, where man 
Woos round him paradise — if mortals can ! 
Delicious winds to mariners betray 
The spicy island, bearing far away, 
Which to discern the keenest vision fails ; — 
'Tis present with them in the citron gales. 
The traveller sees, in every graceful flower 
That buds and blossoms round Religion's bower, 
Proof that a culturing hand of skill and taste 
Has toiled to purpose in the sylvan waste, [dells ; 
" Such has been here ! " speak woodlands, vales, and 
" Such has been here ! " the Soul of Fragrance tells. 
Leaving New England's treasure-world of snow, 
To softer climes the Missionaries go. 

Note. — The number of bound Library Books on the Society's 
Catalogue in January, 1848, was above six hundred. A demand 
exists, and is increasing for them, in all parts of the known world. 



THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 39 

Of various creeds, yet in the Saviour one, — 
The Union sends them to the setting sun. 
Fifty are furnished from her scanty store ; — 
She has a heart for fifty hundred more ! * 

* " To appreciate the labor of twenty-nine of these fifty 
Missionaries and Agents, during the past year, it is needful to 
examine it a little in detail. I. First, then, in performing it, 
thirty-three thousand one hundred and eighty-four miles have 
been travelled, and this, to a great extent, upon roads difficult 
to pass, and quite destitute of ordinary comforts and conveniences. 
II. In the progress of their travels they have delivered one thousand 
two hundred and thirteen sermons or addresses, to as many Sunday 
Schools or other public assemblies, on subjects connected with 
their mission. III. It is part of their work to visit languishing 
Schools, and if possible revive them ; though their main object is 
to establish new Schools in destitute places. This has brought 
them into personal interview with fourteen hundred Schools, em- 
bracing nearly or quite seven thousand Teachers, and fifty thou- 
sand Children and Youth. IV. As part of the apparatus needful 
to accomplish these ends, they are furnished with a limited supply 
of Sunday School Books, and when they find a School is dwindling 
away, and that a small donation will be likely to stimulate its 
friends to new efforts, or when they establish a School in a neigh- 
borhood without ability to supply its own wants, our Missionaries 
are authorized to aid them by a partial or entire gratuity. Y. In 
addition to their Sunday School labor, these twenty-nine brethren 
have put in circulation useful Books, to the value of ten thousand 
two hundred and sixteen dollars fifty-two cents, which, at the 
price of the Society's Ten Dollar Libraries, would be upwards 
of one hundred thousand volumes, averaging one hundred and 
twenty pages each. VI. In the progress of their work, they 
have also carefully distributed upwards of six thousand Bibles 
and Testaments ; a mode of distribution as safe and effective, 
and certainly as cheap, as any that could be desired." — Twenty- 
Third Annual Report of the American Sunday School Union. 



40 THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 

Behold the hamlet in that clearing seen! 
Just where the prairie undulates with green. 
But five years since, and not a log-house rose 
Where Labor now alternates with Repose. 
The huts are poor; the furniture is bad; 
But wholesome food is in abundance had; — 
In rags and health the boys and girls are clad. 
No cheerful school-house greets the passer by; 
No taper steeple points him to the sky. [need, 
No books are there ; — of books, pray what 's the 
Where none possess the useful art to read? 
Sunday unknown, or deemed a stale device, 
The children grow in ignorance and vice. 
The habits gross, the manners unrefined, 
The forest's midnight fitly types the mind, [state 
What shall be done ? — 'till these improve their 
And call a preacher, may we dare to wait? 
And if they call, what shall his doctrines be? 
For here of sects are more than two or three ; 
And they, as one, can never well unite ; 
And each, alone, will trim no gospel light. * 



* Strong testimony from the spot. — A correspondent of the 
Sunday School Journal, writing from Natchez, Mississippi, says : 
" Our people in the river counties have no conception of the 
destitution in the interior, and a strictly correct Report of some 



THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 



41 



Now comes the Union's faithful agent; he 
, Surveys the evil, and the cure can see. 
He visits all — stirs no discordant string. 
They hear the rustle of an angel's wing ! 
His lips drop music, never breathed before; — 
His step leaves fragrance at each willing door. 
The Sabbath shines upon a reverent throng; 
The woods are vocal with the prayer and song 
Poured out where arch and tracery rise to view — 
God's first cathedral, when the world was new. [man 
He speaks : — " Your forms and creeds are various ; 
Has but one Bible — one Salvation-Plan ; — 
And here 'tis found. There is no other Name 
Than His, by whom that full redemption came. 
And you may look — to look, the angels burn ! 
And you may read what angels fain would learn ! 
To aid the purpose I at once intend ; 
And give you Books, as from a distant friend. 
Receive them — read them, lend them, as your own ; 
The gift of one that loves you though unknown." 
Departs the herald ; but the influence stays. 
A School is planted, and its fruits are praise. 



portions would scarcely be credited ; and yet this people can be 
reached, and brought under moral and religious influence, in no 
other way but through the American Sunday School Union." 



4* 



42 THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 

A Church is gathered, and the dews of grace 
Drop gently down and fructify the place. * 

And shall we wait? — Oh no ! the work sustain; 
Nor let the Union call for aid in vain. 

* From reports of Missionaries and Agents, sufficient to fill 
volumes, three or four sketches are subjoined. Mr. J. Adams, 
laboring in Central Illinois : 

Formed 28 new Schools, with 196 Teachers, and 1344 Scholars. 

Visited 74 old " " 567 " " 3700 " 

Total, 102 763 5044 

Delivered 44 Addresses ; travelled 727 miles, and distributed 
60 small Libraries. 

Most of the twenty-eight new Schools were got up and organ- 
ized in very obscure places, where there was never a Sunday 
School before, and far away from religious privileges on the Sab- 
bath. In such places as these the plan of "Union is of incalcu- 
lable importance, and seems to change the moral aspect of the 
community around. Formerly the Sabbath was disregarded and 
awfully profaned, — now, the children and youth, and even pa- 
rents, are seen collecting in the Sunday School, to pray, to si)ig, 
to study the Bible, and to see and do what they had never seen 
and done before — to carry home with them books from their 
Sunday School Library ; and these books are probably read by 
every member of the family, once, twice, or three times in the 
course of the week, with deep interest. 

Mr. A. W. Corey, of Illinois writes : " The whole number of 
Schools that have been visited or aided, in connection with my 
Agency during the last year, is two hundred and nineteen. — - 
Embracing one thousand four hundred and thirty-six Teachers, 
and nine thousand six hundred and sixty-eight Scholars. Seven 
of these Schools are in Missouri, seven in Iowa, sixteen in Wis- 
consin, and one hundred and eighty-eight in Illinois, distributed 



THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 43 

The spot, neglected, and obscure, she seeks ; 
And has an utterance where no Pulpit speaks. 
Her toiling servants penetrate the wild, 
Unsearched by minister, and reach the child; 

among thirty-two counties ; sixty-one are in what is denominated 
'Southern Illinois' — a district as destitute of religious instruc- 
tion as any other of the same size in the Western country. One 
hundred and eighty of these Schools are entirely new, and most 
of them in neighborhoods which never before enjoyed a Sunday 
School. A large proportion of them are in places where they 
have no preaching, and among a people where a preacher of any 
particular denomination could not be sustained — Union Schools 
in which the few resident Christians can unite. 

" These one hundred and eighty Schools embrace one thou- 
sand one hundred and fifty-three Teachers, and seven thousand 
five hundred and sixty-nine Scholars ; making a total of eight 
thousand seven hundred and twenty-two souls who have been 
brought, by the blessing of God upon these humble efforts, under 
the influence of Bible instruction every Sabbath. More than 
twenty-five thousand useful volumes have been put into circula- 
tion, where they have already been read many times, and where 
they will continue to circulate and be read until used up in the 
service — leaving their ineffaceable impressions upon the immor- 
tal mind. 

" Having resided for the last fifteen years in the West, and 
traversed some portions of it extensively, my heart has often 
been moved, while I have thought on the intellectual and moral 
condition — present and prospective — of the millions who dwell 
in this great valley. I remember many years ago, while still 
residing east of the mountains, that from almost every state and 
territory, and village and hamlet of this vast region, a cry of 
destitution and distress came over into our ears. It was the cry 
of those who were famishing for want of intellectual and moral 
food. ' Send us Ministers and Teachers and Bibles, or we and 



And — what no others can so sitrely do, 
They bring him out to daylight's cheerful view; 
And pour effulgence on his gloomy mind ; — [blind. 
Give ears to Childhood deaf, and eyes to Childhood 

our Children perish without knowledge. 1 The cry was loud and 
long ; it entered into our ears and sank down into our hearts. — 
The whole church was moved, and mighty efforts were made to 
respond to the call. The ministers of God turned their faces and 
footsteps towards the setting sun. The Teacher also came, and 
Bibles by cargoes came ; but the tide of population has also con- 
tinued to roll in with a mightier swell ; so that after all that has 
been done for a quarter of a century by the churches of the east — 
and much has been done to diffuse the blessings of the Gospel — 
to enlighten and save this great people — all our means of moral 
and intellectual improvement, are relatively still further in arrears 
than at the beginning. The elements of evil have been steadily 
gaining the ascendancy, and righteousness and truth relatively 
receding. A million of Children and "Youth have been, and still 
are, growing up in ignorance and sin, without any suitable instruc- 
tion. Millions more will soon walk in their footsteps. I have 
looked abroad upon this mighty mass, and asked with deep con- 
cern, what will be the state of society when these millions become 
fathers, and mothers, and legislators, and governors, if the intel- 
lect and heart are left to nature's wildness ? And what will be 
the condition and fate of my country, when this Valley shall gain 
a controlling influence, as gain, it she will ? And where will 
these teeming millions of immortal beings be after myriads of 
ages have rolled away? Shall they swell the song of the 
redeemed before the eternal throne, or the wailings of despair in 
the world of woe ? 

"In looking after the existing instrumentalities, on which 
reliance is placed, under God, to effect the mighty (and desired) 
change, I have turned to the common School ; but I found that 
multitudes of these are without teachers, and many engaged as 



THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 45 

Scorn not these tendrils — if you deem them so — 
Where one may die, a thousand live and grow. 
And should one fail, recuperative power 
Restores to life the imperishable flower, 

instructors, are scarcely able to teach the first rudiments of 
knowledge — still less the obligations of man to his God. God, 
I saw, was not in the common Schools. I turned my eye to the 
minister of God, to him whose messages are in an especial man- 
ner the wisdom and power of God to salvation. But alas! I 
found that not one-fourth of the whole mass came under his 
influence, or within the sound of his voice. But a Sunday School 
may be planted in every village and hamlet and settlement ; in a 
thousand places where the gospel cannot come or be preached ; 
and through the Sunday School, every family and individual 
may be reached. All the Lord's people scattered over these vast 
prairies, like sheep without a shepherd, may become prophets 
and teachers in the Sunday School. Thus many 'shall run to 
and fro, and knowledge shall be increased ' — the knowledge of 
the Lord. Impressed with this view, I wrote to the American 
Sunday School Union, long before I had any expectation of being 
engaged in the blessed work, that, in my opinion, herein alone is 
the salvation of these people, and the hope of our country. — 
Having now spent a year in the work of establishing Schools, so 
far from having changed my opinion, I am only confirmed in it ; 
my confidence is greatly increased. I feel indeed that we have 
struck a mine of wealth, which has only to be ' worked, 1 to pro- 
duce, by the blessing of God, the best results." 

Mr. J. W. Vail of Wisconsin reports the organization of thirty 
new Schools, embracing one hundred and fifty Teachers, and 
about one thousand Scholars. He has also visited and resusci- 
tated fifty-two other Schools. " The past year has been one of 
unparalleled interest, owing to the rush of immigration. Our 
population now numbers over one hundred and fifty thousand 
souls. It is a solemn thought that this multitude, men, women, 



46 



THE SUNDAY SCHOOL, 



With brighter resurrection from the germ, 
As soars aurelia from the lowly worm ! 
Then say not Schools that blossom in the West, 
Like fruitful vines, are useless and unblest. 



and children, will be summoned before their Maker within the 
circle of forty years, a large number before that time, a few after. 
Whatever is done then for this multitude, must be done quickly. 
Among our population are twenty thousand Germans, one thou- 
sand eight hundred French, and twelve thousand Irish, the most 
of whom are the willing dupes of the Man of Sin, slaves to their 
wicked propensities, and destitute of a love for the word of God. 
In addition to these are eight thousand Norwegians, whose minds 
are as dark, and who are as much enslaved to certain forms, as is 
the Papist ; and of these forty-one thousand eight hundred, there 
are very few who have any moral or religious reading. A few 
possess the Bible, and to those few it is precious ; others have it, 
but read it not — while others again are entirely destitute, living 
in a gospel land in heathenish darkness. And of the one hundred 
thousand Americans, English, and Welch, many are worshipping 
their farms and merchandise, others are bowing at the shrine of 
Fashion, and others again boasting of their vileness, and publicly 
sneering at the pure and precious word of God." 

The Rev. B. W. Chidlaw, of Ohio, reports the organization of 
forty-two new Schools, and the reviving and supplying with 
Books of thirty-four other Schools. These Schools are held in 
barns, school houses, private dwellings, and Churches — one of 
them within the walls of the State Prison at Columbus, where 
there is a Union School of about one hundred Scholars, and 
twelve Teachers. These various Schools number five hundred 
Teachers, and three thousand five hundred Scholars. Into -these 
Schools have been introduced about seven thousand, volumes of 
Books. The introduction of this pure, elevated, and sanctified 
juvenile literature into our destitute villages and neighborhoods, 
is all important for the intellectual and spiritual interest of the 
rising generation. 



THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 47 

That where the living preacher has not come, 
The Sunday School's glad voices must be dumb. 
Believe such libel, and the chills of night 
Ten thousand blossoms would forever blight. . 
A thousand buds, in whose embraces lie 
A thousand Churches, would, in embryo, die. 
Hope, that sustains us, taking wings, would fly. 
And in that Valley, where unceasing strife 
Death boldly wages with Eternal Life, 

" In the West we have much to fear from the light literature, 
the licentious and infidel publications, so wide spread in our 
midst. Our danger is real and alarming. Would that it were 
more deeply felt : then would the claims of duty meet a prompt 
and general response. By the help of God, I have lifted up my 
voice against this great and growing evil ; and I have reason to 
hope that I have not cried in vain. In many places much inter- 
est has been excited, and a new impulse given to the Sunday 
School cause, and a greater demand for Sunday School Books. 
This is ground for encouragement and gratitude. The pre-occu- 
pancy of the mind, and a taste for religious reading, is our hope. 
In our Sunday Schools, we aim to secure this vantage ground, 
and God helping us, we shall succeed." 



Such are a few of the important results secured by the labors 
of only four Missionaries. The American Sunday School Union, 
have now fifty-four men of this character, laboring in different 
parts of the country. They are all fully and successfully em- 
ployed. The Society is most anxious to secure the means for 
extending this system of instruction to every family now destitute 
of it in our whole country, and for this purpose, the Board de- 
pend wholly upon the free contributions of the churches. — Cir- 
cular of the American Sunday School Union, 1847. 



48 THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 

Would thousand thousands to destruction go, 
Lost by the falsehood, so replete with woe. * 
'T is vain to urge : " The scholar's interest dies 
"When sleeps the pulpit"- — or that "he who cries 
On Zion's wall is Zion's only voice." — 
For the Ascension- Gift I will rejoice ; 
Fools may its teaching folly deem — with God 
'T is wisdom ! — Beautiful their feet, all shod 
In Holiness, that stand upon the mountains, 
Revealing Him who opened mercy's fountains ! 
How beautiful the feet of heralds, treading 
The noble Valley! o'er its prairies spreading 
The tidings caught in Palestine ; and shedding 
On youthful hearts the odor of sweet flowers, 
Distilled from Sharon's Rose, and flung abroad in 

[showers ! f 

* Of all marvels, none is so strange as that men, calling 
themselves Christians, should seek to thwart the efforts of the 
American Sunday School Union to establish Sabbath Schools in 
those most destitute places of the West, where as yet there is no 
stated ministry. We can conceive that enemies of the gospel 
should regard these nurseries of future churches with dread and 
hatred. But the language of all who love the Saviour should be 
that which fell from his own blessed lips, when children^ were 
brought to him : " Forbid them not ! " — J. M. A. 

f For the substance of this sketch of the incipient steps taken 
in hundreds of instances in the Western Valley, and resulting 
in the permanent establishment of the preached Gospel and its 



THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 49 

See ! how reversing Logic's ancient laws, 
Effect goes back, itself producing Cause. 
The School is offspring of the Day of Rest — ■ 
The Sunday School gives Sunday to the West ! 
To fair Wisconsin, scoffers, void of shame, 
Have idly boasted, " Sunday never came." 
Where round me fell the curtains of an eve 
Lovely as God's bright pencils ever leave 
On Western landscapes — I at leisure rode 
By silver waters, that in music flowed. 
A boy was busy in their ripples fishing ; — 
The nearest journey to a farm house wishing, 
I craved the way; — the way he kindly told, 
And left his sport, some pleasant talk to hold. 
He was but young — of " thirteen years," he said ; 
With rosy cheeks, large sparkling eyes, and head 
All prodigal of black and curly hair. 
He won my love — I spoke him soft and fair : — 
"And fish you here on Sundays, boy?" said I. 
My heart leaped up at his sincere reply — 
" Oh no ! not now ! " and brighter flashed his eye. 

ordinances, proving most conclusively that the Sunday School 
on the Union Plan is the pioneer of the Church, the reader is 
referred to the opinion of Mr. John Adams, Missionary of the 
American Sunday School Union in Illinois — which is embodied 
in the Twentieth Annual Report of the Society. 

5 



50 



THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 



" I fish no more on Sundays ! " - — " but I read 
Our little books, and try the words to heed; 
To break the Sabbath, here, is not the rule, 
For now we have a happy Sunday School." 
The School is offspring of the Day of Rest— ■ 
The Sunday School gives Sunday to the West! 



Would you to skeptics and opposers preach? 
I pray you leave them, and the Children teach. 
A little Child, who letters did not know, 
To Sunday lessons was allowed to go, 
If none to him the way of life would show ; 
"And," interposed his unbelieving sire, 
"No God you fable, nor eternal fire." 
His mother said, " He may catch something good,"- — 
And so he went. At Sunday School he stood 
Just by a Teacher who explained the power 
Of God to one yet older ; and that hour, 
A few plain Bible precepts, simply taught, 
In their rich beauty to that child were brought ; 
And, like perfumes hid in the floweret's cup, 
His little heart the doctrines treasured up. 
That evening, gazing on the spangled frame, 
He watched the stars, as, one by one, they came, 
Each other telling their Creator's Name. — 



TILE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 51 



The glorious Cause of all that's good and fair, 
The Child acknowledged, and he must declare:- — 
" Do see the little stars ! — God put them there ! " 
Save when the brutal father curst and swore, 
God's Name that hovel never heard before. 
The infant's lesson, like IthurieFs spear, 
Flashed to his heart, and gave that parent fear; 
Nor found he peace, 'till unbelief and pride 
Were slain, forever, by the Crucified. 

The Sunday School, in Union, can achieve 
What hope may look for and what faith believe. 
Though carnal weapons she may never bring 
The five smooth pebbles and the simple sling, 
Wielded by Truth, shall evermore prevail 
To bring down Error, armed in coat of mail. 
She takes the Bible for her only rule. 
She on the Bible plants the Sunday School. 
No book above it, nor beside, may show ; — 
But places all immeasurably below. 
She in the sunlight spreads its contents wide, 
And asks mankind to study, think, decide. 
She knows no man, were he as wise as Paul, 
Whose gifts and graces may the conscience thrall. 
Each for himself must hear the earnest call. 



Each, at the peril of his soul must search, 
And at his peril find, nor idly ask the Church ; — • 
The humble heart may lofty mysteries scan ! 
God saves not by communities — his plan 
Points to the pool the individual man, 
And moves the water for one leper, crying, 
As if that moment thousands were not dying ! 

The Union seeks the little child to take, 
And teach it lessons as the Saviour spake.* 
For this great work her forces all unite. 
For this, she kneels before the throne of light. 
For this, implores upon herself and toil 
Grace to prepare and sow the fallow soil. 
For this, her hundred thousand Teachers go, 
Armed at all points, to meet the subtle foe. 
For this she sways o'er willing minds her rule, 
And counts, by millions, Children in her School. 
For this, of Bibles, she's the queenly giver; 
And Books, like waters from that sacred river, 
In rills, unnumbered, flow at her command, 
Conveying Truth to every thirsty land.* 

* To the concise exposition and forcible appeal which close 
the Twentieth Annual Keport, I am indebted for these just views 
of the American Sunday School Union's aims and expectations. 



THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 53 

Flow on ! ye bounteous healing streams of Life, 

Where transcendental infidels are rife. 

Dull dreamers, they, who store enquiring Mind 

With what convenience or mere chance may find ; 

Or chaff, or bran, or stones, — ■ no matter which ! 

Maturer Time will see the proper niche 

Filled with the Good and True, that must prevail 

When wise Experience holds aloft her scale. 

Truth lives, and Error dies, and so the dreamers fail ! 

Such thumb the pages of conceited Self, 

And leave the Bible on the dusty shelf; 

And shunning streams that from pure fountains roll, 

With turbid waters nauseate the soul. 

In vain they grope for Knowledge, while they turn 

From her true star to lamps that feebly burn 

In murky sepulchres, where Error goes, — 

Where God for judgment holds the ashes of His foes ! 

And yet, the thousands, ransomed, what are they, 

Compared with millions, who each lust obey! 

From Europe's capitals we hear their cry; — 

In Irish bogs, by loathsome swarms, they lie; — 

At England's palaces the vagrants die. 

Or, worse than Lazarus, for without his hope, 

While sores of sin warn off the dogs, they grope 
5* 



54 THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 

In the dark precincts of the London hells, 
"Where every sin of damned Gomorrah dwells. 
Lo ! unconfined to soil or hemisphere, 
Behold the spawn of guilt and famine here ! 
Disintegrated particles of man, 
That chemic laws ne'er bind to place or clan. 
With us, their black uncomely tents they pitch — 
We hail the nomads of the Dublin ditch. 
For us, the foreign prison door unlocks ; — 
The work-house empties on our ballot box ! 
"Your picture's sombre; to relieve its gloom, 
The Sunday School, from sure and fearful doom, 
Will save the Children ?" — Never! there's no room. 
Room for the rich, the noble,, and the proud; — 
Room for the decent poor — not for a carrion crowd. 
Our Sunday Schools like gardens you behold; 
The flowers arrayed in crimson, pink, and gold. — 
What choice perfumes the soul and sense delight ! 
What rainbow colors fascinate the sight ! 
Is it for this, celestial Pity takes 
An earthly form, admired and loved as Raikes, 
That some with dainties may be overfed, 
While others die, for lack of daily bread? 
'T is wrong ! - — 't is sad perversion ! — shall it be 
Forever, thus, Philanthropy ! with thee ? 



THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 



No ! for a lovelier spirit wakes and smiles, 
Whose radiant glory lights the British Isles — 
Whose wing of swiftness cleaves the yielding air,— 
Now seen with us — a Genius, good and fair. 
She walks abroad, and seeks the vilest haunt; 
And those exiled from all but Sin and Want 
She kindly gathers ; — calms the ruffian lad ; 
Revives the drooping ; softly soothes the sad ; 
Applies fresh waters ; smooths dishevelled curls ; 
Turns little furies into gentle girls, 
And savage tempers to the decent rules 
That love enforces in the Ragged Schools ! * 

* It is not more than seven or eight years since the attention 
of benevolent people in London was called to the forlorn con- 
dition of thousands of youth, of both sexes, who, not only in 
stature, but in wickedness, had grown beyond the reach of com- 
mon Sunday Schools, and many of whom had become already 
notorious for crime. There were parts of the city and suburbs 
of London in which crowds of these miserable creatures were 
found. These were justly called " breeding places for the hulks 
and jails, too horrible to contemplate." 

As early as 1839-40, a very destitute district in the vicinity 
of London was explored, and hundreds of people were found in 
a state of the most deplorable ignorance and poverty. For their 
sakes an evening service was opened, and the most destitute were 
furnished with suitable garments to enable them to attend. The 
effort was frustrated by the abusive and violent conduct of 
vicious youth, who pelted the people and their Teachers, as well 
as the building where they were, with stones and other missiles. 
It was then thought best to attempt to bring these youth under 



Hark ! to a Voice that from the Valley breaks ; 
From Western prairies, rivers, forests, lakes ; — 
Young men ! who crowd the Atlantic's narrow mart, 
Come! and explore the Mississippi's heart. 

some good influences. They were already far advanced in crimi- 
nal courses. 

The evening service being exchanged for an evening School, 
the scene which the new assembly presented, beggars all descrip- 
tion. The Teachers could secure no order, and the intervals of 
silence within the School were disturbed by the showers of mis- 
siles on the roof of the building, by those who were without. 

To preserve the public peace, it was necessary to have the 
police in attendance. Occasionally, indeed, there was a cessa- 
tion of noise from screams, catcalls, whistles, falling forms, and 
other strange sounds, but the moment there was an attempt to 
sing a hymn, many would begin a profane and often indecent 
song, and all attempt at worship failed. 

Not discouraged by these difficulties, the promoters of the 
School called for aid ; and several warm-hearted, self-denying 
friends came into the midst of this mob-like company, and thus 
by dividing the labor, and assigning a small number to the care 
of each, they seemed to be reduced to some kind of order. Not 
a session of the School past, however, without some outbreaking 
of violent rudeness and insult. 

Of the Girl's School we have statements showing the urgent 
necessity of similar provision for them. A Report before us 
says : " Scenes of cruelty and barbarity sometimes occur, even 
among the female classes. In one class, containing six girls, 
they quarrelled, and continued fighting until their mouths were 
literally 'filled with blood.'" The Eeport adds, "The attend- 
ance of this latter class is very uncertain ; they generally come 
in gangs, probably at times when they have committed some 
misdemeanor, to take shelter, for a short season, from the hands 
of justice." 



THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 57 

You, taught where oaks the northern mountains 
Us teach, beneath the persimmon and lime.* [climb, 
And you, of Woman's all controlling mind, 
Whose mission 'tis to polish rude mankind, 

The " Ragged School Union'''' was formed in April, 1844, by 
a body of Sunday School Teachers connected with various evan- 
gelical denominations. In a short time public attention was 
attracted to the scheme. Lord Ashley, and several of the nobil- 
ity expressed an interest in its success. The first Report gave a 
list of twenty Schools, having an average attendance of two 
thousand Children and two hundred Teachers. 

At Windsor, (one of the royal residences,) a " Ragged School" 
has been established by a chimney sweep, — himself reclaimed 
from deep wretchedness, — and he was now overseeing a School 
of one hundred poor Boys and Girls, from eight to ten years of 
age. So great confidence is felt in the plan, that at Epping, — a 
densely populated place, — the sum of fifteen hundred dollars 
was raised by voluntary subscriptions to open a School. By the 
last account we have seen, it appears that the number of these 
Schools, in or near London, is not less than twenty-six. The 

* To the reasons which the preceding pages offer for such an 
Appeal, especially to Sunday School Teachers, may be added the 
fact that the Census of 1840 shows the number of Children in 
the West, who then attended no School of any kind, to be one 
million. Over one hundred thousand of these are from the total 
of one hundred and sixty-nine thousand one hundred and ninety- 
five Children in Kentucky alone. The Governor of that State, 
in a late Message, says : " We have on our statute book what is 
denominated a system of common Schools, but hitherto it has 
been barren of results." As to Indiana, the State Journal says 
that "there are over thirty thousand one hundred persons of 
twenty years of age or more, who are unable either to read or 
write." 



58 THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 

Say not your sex precludes you from the toil; 
The lily hand may win and wear the spoil. 
A woman's faith and constancy have power 
To turn the battle in a doubtful hour. 



average attendance of Pupils, two thousand five hundred ; and of 
Teachers, two hundred and fifty. 

The Reports published by these Schools are very interesting, 
and record many cases of good arising from their operation. In 
the Report of a School in St. Giles's, it is stated that " great im- 
provement has taken place in the general conduct of the Scholars. 
Here there is both a male and female adult class, a sewing class, 
and also a place for the Scholars to wash before going into School ; 
thirty-five have become depositors to the provident fund, and 
thirty-three of the Scholars have been either wholly or partially 
clothed out of another fund for that purpose, and placed in re- 
spectable situations during the present year." The intimate 
knowledge many of the Scholars have acquired of the leading 
truths and doctrines of Christianity, their attention to the instruc- 
tions imparted by their Teachers, the correctness with which the 
weekly texts have been learned, and their altered behavior in 
and out of School, give hopeful indication that much good has 
been accomplished. 

" The School in Jurston Street, Gloucester Street, Westmin- 
ster Road has been held every Sabbath evening during the last 
six years, and through it upwards of seven thousand children 
and young persons, of the most abandoned habits have passed, 
many of whom have learned not only to read and write, but have 
become useful and creditable members of society; but as the 
time for instruction is so limited, it is deemed advisable to open 
a new and separate School, near the same locality, as a day 
School. Vast numbers of these youths are continually manifest- 
ing a desire to attend to instruction, if the time be made to suit 
their convenience." The following occurs in Gray's Yard Report 
for the past year : " One boy, whose conduct as a Scholar was 



THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 59 

k 

To Woman, lofty energies belong ; — 

Else false is History — false the Poet's song. 

Lately we were electrified by news 
Of glorious triumph over Vera Cruz ; 

formerly very bad, is now a Teacher in the School, and a member 
of a Christian Church ; and two others, who had been Scholars, 
have lately been drafted into the Bible Class of a neighboring 
School of a better kind. Another youth, who was frequently 
warned of his danger, resolved to forsake his evil companions, 
and went to reside elsewhere, in order to be out of their way. 
He is now filling a useful station in society, and gaining an honest 
living by industry and care." 

" The plan of a lending library, on a small scale, has been 
tried in two or three Schools, and the results are very encourag- 
ing, the books being generally returned regularly and in good 
order. The committee are anxious to extend this plan, and also 
to distribute interesting little story-books and tracts amongst the 
Children, especially as they are found frequently to read them 
aloud to their parents at home. The committee intend likewise 
shortly to supply Bibles and Testaments, at half price, to the 
Children who can read, and they have reason to believe that many 
will be thus subscribed for. 

" The committee have not yet been able to carry out their 
plan of having a place for washing attached to every School, but 
a paid teacher has been tried at two or three (in order to have the 
School open several evenings a-week, as well as Sunday), and it 
has been found to answer very well. It does not appear to dis- 
courage or drive away voluntary teachers (who are always wel- 
come)." 

It may not be that we have precisely the same class of youth 
in our cities that are found in London, and perhaps the term 
" Ragged Schools" would not be appropriate to such an assem- 
blage here ; but if public statements on the subjects are to be 



60 



THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 



Where men and horses, and artillery trains, 
Wheel, foot, and fetlock rolled in blood and brains. 
Yet why rehearse the horrors acted then? 
You are not ravening soldiers - — you are Men ! * 

credited, there are thousands who must be constrained by just 
such means to an abandonment of their evil courses, or they 
will pursue them to a fatal end. We have room but for a few 
paragraphs. 

Of Boston, it is said " that no less than twelve boys, under 
eighteen years of age, are confined in the city gaol. Gangs of 
boys roam through the streets every night, seeking opportunities 
to plunder. During the summer, nearly every shop in the lower 
part of Broad Street has been broken open, chiefly by these youth 
ful depredators." 

" Gangs of vicious boys are prowling about the streets defying 
the law, and putting peaceful citizens in terror by their notorious 
and violent proceedings." After stating some instances of vio- 
lence and outrage,, it is stated : — "In fact no man who is averse 
to repelling force by force, is safe for a moment near these out- 
laws." 

" For months a large portion of all the criminals who have 
crowded our police and municipal courts have been minors." 



=& Shooting dovjn Women. — A correspondent of the New 
York Commercial Advertiser, under date of Mexico, October 
29th, 1847, says: " During the night of the 14th, our sharp shoot- 
ers were scattered and posted over the city, in the cathedral 
spires, and domes, and on all elevated housetops, whence they 
picked off the Mexican populace by hundreds. Whenever a 
Mexican was caught in arms, he was shot at once. Some were 
thrown headlong from the housetops into the streets below. — 
Women were shot when discovered in the act of passing loaded 
muskets to the men in the streets. Never were the infuriated 
people of Mexico so summarily treated." 



THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 61 

It chanced the night before the battered walls 
Yielded in terror of besieging balls, 
A Spanish Lady, whose betraying signs 
Revealed the spy, was taken near our lines. 

" The Farm School, on Thompson's Island, in our harbor, has 
for years accomplished much in the way of reformation. The 
Police, too, of Boston are effective, and lately have adopted new 
measures with the vagrant boys of our streets, with special refer- 
ence to Sabbath profanation. Yet, sad to say, the above picture 
of sin and idleness is not overdrawn, nor inapplicable at this 
moment." 

In New York, " it is estimated that at least twenty thousand 
Children and Youth are entirely unreached by Sunday School or 
other religious influence ; a large portion of whom are already 
taking the first steps in the path of infamy and crime. Some 
effort has been made for their rescue, but such effort must be 
vastly increased, if we would make any perceptible impression." 
" The temptations and excitements to crime among the young, 
are greatly multiplied by the corrupting influence of a corrupt 
press." 

Of Philadelphia, it is enough to say that the chief actors in 
firemen's riots, and other outrages upon persons and property, 
are found to be abandoned and reckless youths. Clubs or Asso- 
ciations exist with savage and outlandish names — the members 
of which are often found armed with deadly weapons, with which 
they have attacked peaceable citizens, as if to show their con- 
tempt for human life and public peace. 

It has been estimated that at least a thousand youth could 
be mustered within two miles of the State House, all prepared, 
within and without, for the most revolting scenes of violence and 
outrage. How many thousands are under training to fit them for 
the same ranks, we may not know; but for these thousands no 
adequate provision now exists. The wise and good of all classes 
and denominations are warned of the state of things around 

6 



62 



THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 



In the red glare of carnage, death, and hell, 

Stood, like an angel, Donna Isabel, 

Calm and observing; and to question dumb 

Of whence she came ? and wherefore had she come ? 

The soldiers felt the inexplicable power 

Of grace and beauty their dark spirits cower; — 

And, spite of habit, her they could not vex; — 

She won the treatment ever due her sex. 

Oar cannon called — still, dauntless, dared refuse 

Capitulation gallant Vera Cruz. * 

And while her native city mocked our arms, 

She — a true Spaniard — wore the lofty charms 

That Nature gives the generous heart, to hide 

Its bitter anguish with a veil of pride. 

them. Will they awaken to a sense of impending danger and 
open their hearts, hands, and purses, to supply the means of 
averting it ? — Papers of the American Sunday School Union. 

A building has been lately erected in Philadelphia, of a size 
to accommodate one thousand; to be filled from the ranks of 
those who are not at present connected with any Sunday School, 
and especially designed for the benefit of the extreme destitute 
and ignorant, among the Children and Youth. May the example 
be speedily imitated by sister cities, equally needing just such 
an edifice ! 



*It will be seen that this word — of Latin derivation — is 
pronounced, as in the text, and on page 59, for the sake of the 
rhyme. It is not, perhaps, a matter of sufficient importance for 
a note ; yet it is hoped that the license may be pardoned. 



THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 63 

But when the Stars and Stripes of victory's band 

Waved o'er the Serpent-Bird of her dear land, 

Telling that all was lost, save honor, she 

Her noble soul resigned to agony ; 

With tears lamenting that the heaps of slain 

Were not her pillows — she had lived in vain ! 

To Woman lofty energies belong, 

And true is History — true the Poet's song. 

As cloud and fire, twin guides, by night and day 
Marshalled the tribes along their desert way, 
When Egypt saw the wondrous pillar glide, 
And blackness, only, showed one frowning side ; 
The other, still, to Israel's earnest sight, 
Shone on their path, a glowing orb of light; 
So Earth, though dark as Heaven beholds her now, 
Has precious jewels blazing on her brow. 
The thoughtful eye sees in her lowly state 
Immortal forms ; — sees glories on her wait ; 
Sees her, the object of intense desire 
To those who stand, or fly, — angelic flames of fire ! 
A seraph sings, by Love divinely taught ; — 
Earth, wand'ring Earth, is in that seraph's thought. 
Around the throne celestial harpers throng ; 
Earth, in her sin, is subject of their song. 



64 



THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 



Marred by her folly in her Maker's view, 
She yet has treasure and attractions too. 
"While roll the cycles of the eternal skies, 
Earth is the centre of unnumbered eyes; — 
Yes ! in her dust and ruins has a phase 
Of marvellous beauty to an angel's gaze. 

Redemption ! how mysteriously is stirred 
The heart's deep echo at the charming word ! 
'Tis this exalts our planet, sunk so low. 
And spans her tempests, an ethereal bow. 
'Tis this invests her with a robe, whose hue 
Of shining wonders, Eden never knew. 
Beyond its wealth, when morning has unrolled 
Its naming curtains, dipt in molten gold- — 
Beyond its glory when o'er western skies 
The twilight drops her veil of crimson dies, 
The robe of Mercy on the sinner shines ; 
Woven throughout with Beauty's perfect lines. 



Have you seen ? have you seen ? where the battle is 
raging 
The banners of Light and of Night are unfurled ? 
Have you heard? have you heard? the hurrah, 
where engaging 



THE SUNDAY SCIIOOL. 65 

Are the soldiers of God and the Kings of the 
world ? 
And this is the conflict of Goodness and Sin, 

Begun when our father from Paradise fell; 
And Time has been patiently gathering in 

And mustering the forces of heaven and hell. 

We should fear ! we should fear ! as we daily dis- 
cover 

New weakness, new folly, we '11 only have loss ; 
We will hope ! we will hope ! as we old ground 
recover 

And take new possessions, we'll win at the Cross. 
For an angel of Charity with us behold ! — [she 

'Tis the Spirit of Union! — the churches has 
Side by side in the contest for Jesus enrolled; — 

" Distinct as the billows, yet one as the sea." 

Have you seen ? have you seen ? where the battle is 
rairino; 
The banners of Light and of Night are unfurled ? 
Have you heard? have you heard? the hurrah, 
where engaging 
Are the soldiers of God and the Kings of the 
world ? 

6* 



66 THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 

Yes ! and we in that strife between Satan and man 
For Truth take the buckler and helmet and 
shield ; 
With the Right, with the Light, with the Leader 
in van 
To die in the trenches, or conquer the field! 






POEMS. 



THE LATE ALEXANDER HENRY.* 



PRESIDENT OF THE AMERICAN SUNDAY SCHOOL UNION, 



He sat with men whose high debate 
Was not the nation's laws to frame ; 

Though on their silent toils the State 
Might build a future glorious name. 

* First President of the Society, from its organization to his 
death ; which took place in Philadelphia, August 13th, 1847, in 
the eighty-second year of his age. 

At a special meeting of the Board of Officers and Managers 
of the Society, held at their house, August 16th, the following 
Eesolutions, with a Preamble, were unanimously adopted : 

Resolved, That while we thank God for the blessing bestowed 
in the gift of His servant, now departed from us, we cannot but 



68 



THE LATE ALEXANDER HENRY. 



Their silent toils, to supervise 

A work that spite of Error grows ; — 

To stud its gloom with starry eyes, 

And deck the world with Sharon's Rose. 

Prepared by zeal, religion, skill, 
And courage for a doubtful plan, 

'Twas his the Pilot's post to fill 

On voyage whose noble aim was Man. 

Whose noble aim was simply sought 

Through channels of the Infant Mind ; — 

To enter and to lodge a thought 
That should forever bless mankind! 



deplore the severe loss to the Society, to our country, and to the 
cause of truth in the world. We reverently bow to the will of 
the All-wise Disposer of all things ; praying, that He will raise up 
those who may manfully and successfully bear the banners of 
His people, in their conflict with the powers of darkness, causing 
truth and holiness to triumph over ignorance and sin. 

Resolved, That the Officers and Managers, with all persons in 
the service of the Society, will attend the funeral of our deceased 
President. 

Resolved, That the sympathies of the Board be expressed to 
the family of Mr. Henry, on this, their great bereavement,, with 
our prayers that they may enjoy the consolation which God so 
freely gives to his children, and of which they may assuredly 
partake, who can confidently trust in the happiness of a faithful, 
humble follower of the Lord. 




His keen perception saw the lip 
Of ready scorn a failure sting; 

His faith beheld the goodly Ship [bring. 
Which God's free winds to port would 

He ventured the uncounted gold 
Of mind and soul to Jesus given ; 

He gained on earth a thousand fold, 
And Mercy's waiting crown in Heaven. 

A rare and happy lot, that blends 

The English sense, — the Irish heart, — 

The good and gifted, constant friends, — 
And in the Book of Life a part! 




GRACE AND POSITION. 

'In the religious life, we are the creatures, not only of Grace, but of Position." — Upeam. 
TO MY FRIEND, MISS 3. S. M- , OF SALEM. 

FOR TWELVE TEARS AFFLICTED WITH SICKNESS. 



Temptation, toil, and suffering, here, 
Are methods in the work of Grace. 

Instrumentalities appear 

In the relations Mind and Place 

Each hold to each. 

God by Position loves to teach. 

i 

We tint the heavens with colors warm ; 

How soft and fair the landscapes lie ! 
But God calls up the chilling storm ; 

With sorrows he disturbs our sky. 



GRACE AND POSITION. 71 

Our projects sown 

Mature to harvests of His own. 

Hence the afflictions, that like clouds 
Gather and blacken round the man, — 

Singly, or in appalling crowds 
Beleaguering, are within the plan 

He deigns to trace, 

"Who acts upon the Mind by Place. 

Daniel might ne'er these confines spurn, 
And pierce the everlasting scenes, 

Till with the lions he should learn 
What God by sign and vision means. 

The dreadful den 

Sharpened the prophet's eagle ken. 

Paul for his Master could not wield 

The burning sword of Truth and Right, 

Till he was smitten in a field 

Whose glory dimmed the noonday light. 

Blinded and slain, 

That he might see and live again. 

Bunyan, whose Pilgrim keeps the road 
By which the ransomed gain the sky, 



72 GRACE AND POSITION. 

Whose Progress guides to Heaven's abode, 

And shall, till sun and planets die, 
In fiery pains 
Shows us how Grace through Trial reigns. 

J Tis wondrous, that by such a path, 
So different from our fairy dreams,— 

Beset with sadness, fear, and wrath, 

Whose miry sloughs engulph our schemes, — 

Which fiends infest — 

God leadeth to the saints' sweet rest. 

And yet, dear heart! these thorns, so rife, 
That bruise us on the wintry way, 

Are branches of the Tree of Life, 

Whose leaves and fruits will ne'er decay. 

Whose summer bloom 

Will flourish o'er Creation's tomb. 

Thou sigh'st for youth so nearly fled ; 

For years in disappointment spent ; 
A blighted spirit — body dead ; — 

Hadst thou accomplished thy intent, 
To Earth and Heaven 
What revenues by thee were given ! 



GRACE AND POSITION. 73 



And jet, no earnest herald's lip 
On Caxmel or in sweet Cashmere, 

Or where the frozen Arctics dip 
Their poles— in melody so clear 

Sings of the Cross, 

As thou, who 'st gained its wealth by loss. 

blessed Preacher ! thy faint word 
Has fallen on some heart with power; 

Thy faith has some disciple stirred, 
Thy hope has gilt his darkened hour. 

The weak has won ! — 

The suffering saint shall hear : " Well done ! " 

In this stern warfare thou and I 
Are creatures of Controlment still, 

That seeks and brings the wanderer nigh — 
Educes good from seeming ill — 

And saves by Grace, 

That wisely acts on Mind by Place. 



" THAT IS ABLE TO KEEP YOU FROM FAILING." 



That is able to keep me, an ignorant child, 
Who wounds every finger with thorns of the wild ; 
Oh Father ! so teach me and keep me, as Thine, 
That the Rose of Religion shall only be mine. 

That is able to keep me in passionate youth ; 
Discovering my errors ; alluring to Truth ; — 
The falsehood of Earth ever willing to show 
To the heart that dreams not of its wearisome woe. 



That is able to keep me in manhood's estate, 
From tempters that woo, and destroyers that wait; 
From poison that actively courses within, — - 
The sap of the Upas, whose nature is sin. 



THAT IS ABLE TO KEEP YOU. 75 

That is able to keep me in desolate age ; 
That leaf, too, has follies inscribed on its page ; 
The thread of my life may right sympathies bind — 
From beginning to end 't is with wrong intertwined. 

That is able to keep me in penury's hour, 
And the terrible test of prosperity's power; 
In comfort and ease, or when sickness attends ; 
In communion of minds ; in bereavement of friends. 

That is able to keep me in crises of Life ; — 
On the wave's peaceful bosom ; on billows of strife ; 
And bring me, with songs, to the coveted shore, 
Where the storm and the wreck are remembered no 
more. 

That is able to keep me if, courting the sun, 
I soar in my ecstacy — every thing won ! — 
And as able, when down in the depths of despair, 
I write myself: "fool — sad eternity's heir." 

That is able to keep me securer than he 
Who ventured the trial and lost at the tree ; 
In Adam I fall, weak as chaff or the sand, — 
In Christ I arise and immovably stand. 



76 THAT IS ABLE TO KEEP YOU. 

That is able to keep me ; — none truly is kept 
Over whom, for a moment, the Watchman has slept; 
Though I walk all my days in the pathway of light, 
If at last left of Mercy, I stumble in night. 

That is able to keep me; — and able art Thou 
Who hast kept to the present — who keepest me now; 
I am "faint, yet pursuing" — Hove! — keep me then 
Through faith to salvation, forever, Amen. 



THE TWO SHIPS. 77 



THE TWO SHIPS. 



"In the year 1620, a Dutch Ship imported into Virginia the 
first Slaves that were ever seen on the North American continent. 
In the same year the ' May Flower ' brought the Pilgrims to 
Plymouth." 

A vessel on the deeps ! 
Her stolen freight is human flesh and blood ; 

Eternal justice sleeps, — 
Else, sure, would name some attribute of God, 

When men make void His law, 
And thus with Mercy's Golden Rule wage war. 

Insulted billows bear 
The pirate keel from old worlds to the new ; 

To poison the free air [blue 

With bondmen's breath ; and where bend skies of 

7* 



O'er green fresh vale and hill, 
The vigorous soil with Slavery's scathe to kill. 

Those "chattels," bought and sold, 
Those few poor victims, ten score years ago, 

Such is the lust of gold — 
Are children's children now, in tears and woe. 

Freemen by Freedom's power [hour ! 

Have made them -*- they 're three millions at this 

Three million slaves 
To waste o'er cotton and the sugar cane, 

Then fill their graves, 
And leave Guilt's legacy, a damning stain 

On thee, unhappy land ! 
Which e'en effacing Age immortally shall brand. 

A vessel on the deeps ! 
Her noble freight is human flesh and blood; 

No rifled Slave- Coast weeps; — 
Around her hover airs and smiles of God; — 

Peace fans the favoring gales, 
And Righteousness is with her as she sails. 

In Winter's dreary reign 
Of ice and cold, she nears the Western world; — 



THE TWO SHIPS. 79 

The Northern blasts complain ; 
The clouds of sleet and snow above her curled 

Fling down their wrath — what then? 
Her quivering ribs are mighty — they hold men ! 

Men of the pure old stock, 
Who haste alike from Prince and Prelate's ban, 

To build upon the rock 
A rest for Conscience and a home for Man, 

Where Truth and Light 
Shall sway a nation by the rule of Right. 

Two hundred years have flown; — 
The South drinks now that Hollander's deep curse ; 

Her cup alone ! — 
Blessings are dropping like the dew on us ; 

"By Heaven," — say heart and lip — 
" New England owes them to that Pilgrim Ship ! " 



80 



THE SILENT STREET, 



THE SILENT STREET 



In Boston is a Street — about a rod 

From her famed Common — by men seldom trod ; 

Never by the mere lounger, or the fair, 

To kill off time, or sport attractions there. 

'Tis shunned by such as play the flutterer's part 

In folly's sunshine ; — by the wise in heart 

Its thought is entertained. Ranged on each side 

Are mansions, not of opulence or pride ; 

Of structure simple ; taste was not invoked 

In rearing these. Envy itself, provoked, 

Could find no food in gorgeous trappings here. 

Yet taste is wanting not, though still severe ; 

And you may note, in marble, o'er the door, 

Each owner's name. Of Fame's selectest store 

Are some of these. 



Here, where earth's kindred meet 
And friends convene, how silent is the Street ! 
Each, in due time, takes lodgings, and the gate, 
Closed sullenly upon him, seems to wait, 
Patient, yet surely, till 'tis oped again, 
And one more swells the long forgotten train 
Of those who, once within that sombre cell, 
Till time breaks up, in solitude shall dwell. 

Two, lately, 'twas my lot to see, and they 
Were here to take possession. In array, 
Not like the accustomed bustle that attends, 
Methought, the change of habitation ; — friends 
In concourse, sad, were with them ; — holy rite, 
With prayer and dirge, was ordered ; and the sight 
Of these new tenants was unwonted, such 
As in gay life we see not. There was much 
Of thought, intense, prevailing, as on them, 
Mother and child — men looked. A very gem 
Of beauty was that infant; save, its cheeks 
Were stilly pale ; and this flower of three weeks — ■ 
Folding itself in its sweet bud, as 'twere 
Shrinking away from our rough winds of care — 
Seemed sleeping. — 'T was a kind and quiet sleep. 
Its mother, too ! the voice of friendship said : 



82 THE SILENT STREET. 

And truth confirmed it - — " grace and nature shed 

Early, on her, attraction. She was one 

Not formed to dazzle in the gairish sun, 

But loving shade, yet not inactive shade, [fade, 

She grew and bloomed, and now, where such ne'er 

She lives, with virtuous names not born to die, 

And her bright record is inscribed on high." 

And is she here ? — why weep these ? ■ — why, by 
Of sickly taper, to this house of night [light 

Comes she ? They pause, I notice, and delay 
The journeyer's entrance. Grieving friends give 
And he, who with that partner long had dwelt [way, 
In fairer mansion, by her side has knelt 
In anguish, sore, and takes the last fond look. 
Oh, God ! 't was the heart's agony that shook 
Thy servant then. Will he not tarry too ? 
Is no bed decked within, for love so true ? 
Ah, in death's undress she is hither brought ; 
Her couch is damp, her chamber cheerless, — nought 
To welcome her and babe. — What Street is this, 
Whose dwellers thus are shorn of home's sweet bliss ? 
And to the world's turmoil and daily strife, - 
The business, pleasure, weal and woe of life 
Are all insensible ? — A willing search 
Will find it soon. 'Tis under St. Paul's Church. 



YE SPIRITS OF THE JUST THAT SOAR. 83 



YE SPIRITS OF THE JUST THAT SOAR. 



Ye Spirits of the Just, that soar 

Beyond those starry fields, sublime, 
Dwellers in light with whom are o'er 

The pageants and the tears of time, - 
Say, are the thoughts we entertain 

Of yonder unknown worlds, untrue ? 
Are those bright mysteries only vain ? 

Dissolved, or unrevealed to you ? 

Thou disembodied one, whom here 
'Twas ours, in fellowship to know — 

Who, buoyed by Faith, without a fear, 
Fled from endearments prized below- 



84 YE SPIRITS OF THE JUST THAT SOAR. 



On the dear hopes that soothed thy bed, 
Has disappointment flung its pall ? 

Or dost thou bosom now thy head 
On Him, thou chosest as thy All? 

Prophets — a long and awful train, 

Pilgrims, that bowed beneath the rod, 
And martyrs, who from racks of pain 

Soared to the presence of your God — 
Earth gave ye not her poor renown; 

Humility your only gem — 
'T was yours to seek a nobler crown, 

Say, wear ye now that diadem? 

Forbear ! — yon ministering one 

Thine eyes, in flesh, shall never see; 
The dull cold sepulchre, its own, 

Mortal ! shall never yield to thee. 
Yet on futurity's long night 

A cheering beam of heaven is shed ; 
Receive thou Revelation's light, 

And not the visions of the dead. 



WAITING FOR THE GRAVE. %~J 



WAITING FOR THE GRATE. 



Wearied with play, that night, my sweet first-born 

Betimes had sunk to slumber, and he now 

Quietly nestled on his pillow, that 

To Innocence and Childhood lent sweet dreams. 

He slept, unheeding the wild storm which held, 

That winter night, rude empire. All within 

Was quiet, — midnight's stern serenity 

Dwelt in each chamber, and that house was still 

And calm, in the repose of loneliness. 

He is my eldest, and a parent may 

Indulge his love. Wrapt in his dreams he lay, 

Tranquil and happy, seeming. He is fair, 

Yet fairer seemed he than his wont in sleep. 



86 WAITING FOR THE GRAVE. 

His rounded arms were folded, as if toil 

Were ended now, and lie in balmy rest 

Should find new vigor for the coming day. 

His flaxen hair lay carelessly upon 

His polished brow, and there many a curl 

Rioted in luxuriance. The red lips, 

That pouted at my lightest kiss, half closed, 

Spoke to beholders that within was peace. 

Near him slept Henry, younger, frailer too; 

A tender plant that seemed not formed to bear 

The ruder winds of life. He slumbered where 

He coveted to slumber — in her arms 

Who gave him being; for her love was there 

To shield her darling boy; and dearer now 

To that sad mother was her little one, 

And closer to her heart she pressed him, as if fear 

Had taught her, he too would that couch forsake. 

For one was not — William, that lovely one — 

William, who constantly had slumbered there 

With his twin-brother, shared not now that bed. 

He too had gone to rest-— a rest how sweet — 

How holy! — In a farther room he lay, 

Wrapt in the robe of whiteness that adorns 

Departed innocence. O, how composed, 

Sublime, was that deep sleep ! Still he slept on 



PARTING HYMN. 



87 



In all the beauty, all the loveliness 

That late adorned him. Sickness had not stolen 

One grace that Death had not threefold restored. 

He lay before me in his coffin, there 

So tranquil, that unto my stricken heart 

I said, " he is not dead — my boy but sleeps." 

Aye, long might I believe so, were it not 

For the fixed impress, still — something severe — 

Even in smiles, that Death doth always wear. 



PARTING HYMN 



SUNG BY TELE PUPILS OF PHILLIPS' ACADEMY, ANDOVER, AT TKE ANNUAL 
EXAMINATION, 1847. 



When evil and good were in Eden discovered, 
And man, losing innocence, fell from his state, 

Two angels about him, in company hovered, 
And went with him out at the sentinelled gate. 






The angel of Light has since followed him, ever,— 
So hope on his gourds, a sweet blossom may 
bloom ; 

The angel of Shadow has left his side never,— 
So the wanderer may learn 't is not his to presume. 

There 's Light when the morning in glory is shining, 
And slumber and visions and darkness are gone; 

There's Shadow when gently the sun is declining, 
And softness and sadness and silence come on. 

There's Light his horizon of pleasure adorning, 
When man issues forth at the breaking of day: 

There 's Shadow succeeding the freshness of 
morning, 
When sorrow at evening perplexes his way. 

And Youth with his barque on the mirroring ocean, 
The prow to the haven and streamers at helm — 

Dreams not in his joy of the angry commotion, 
Where tempests are rising and seas overwhelm. 

We've lingered awhile on the margin, uncertain,— 
But now as adventurers, we launch on the wave ; 

We've patiently waited, — but rises the curtain, 
And ho ! for the drama that ends with the grave. 



freedom's hymn. 89 

Not so — for the thought that had birth in these 
bowers, 

Is living, enlarging, and ripening its plan, — 
While eternity's dial is telling the hours, 

To influence the woe or the welfare of man. 

For him in whose bosom is Rectitude burning, 
For Youth in his pilgrimage seeking the Right, 

There 's a Paradise opened, where exiles returning, 
Find Shadow all lost in effulgence of Light. 



FREEDOM'S HYIffl FOR THE FOURTH OF JULY. 



The patriot sires in glory sleep; 

Their sepulchre is holy earth; 
And we upon their ashes keep 

The Sabbath of a nation's birth. 

God of our battles ! Didst not Thou 

The right arm of those warriors guide, 
8* 



90 



FREEDOMS HYMN. 



When they for Freedom dealt the blow, 
And freely gave their own heart's tide? 

And didst not Thou along our shore 
Bid angel Peace extend her wing; 

And blood-stained banners wave no more, 
And useful Arts and Commerce spring? 

These are thy works, oh God ! and we, 
The sons who never could be slaves, 

Who proudly view fair Freedom's tree 
Expanding o'er our father's graves — - 

We crush the mind ! we forge the chain ! 

And from the soil by charter given, 
This hallowed hour, the sigh of pain 

Ascends, accusing us to Heaven. 

Will mockery ask, this Day, what spoil 
Shall hearts in glad oblation yield, — 

The first-fruits of a teeming soil? 
Or choicest cattle from the field? 

Will solemn vows — where pgeans swell, 
Lauding our fabric's goodly plan — 

Atone, while stripes and fetters tell 
That man is pitiless to man ? 



TO A DEAF AND DUMB GIRL. 91 

Yain all! — Jehovah has no need 
Of our first-fruits or altar's smoke ; 

Dearer to God is Mercy's deed ; 
Nobler to break Oppression's yoke. 



TO A DEAF AND DUMB GIRL. 



I grieve not Heaven to thee denies 

The attribute of speech, 
"When reading in those starry eyes 

All that the mind can teach. 
I grieve not no assuring tone 

Of love, bids thee rejoice ; — 
Thou favored one ! to thee is given 

The Spirit's soothing voice. 

I grieve not that to thee Life's scroll 
— For such is Heaven's will — 

Is unrevealed, thy gentle soul 
Reads not that page of ill. 



92 



TO A DEAF AND DUMB GIRL. 



Oh, happy maiden ! trace not thou 

Those characters of fire ; 
They tell of wrongs, of bitter strife, 

And blight of fond desire. 

The flickering light that gilds our day, 

On thee may never shine,— 
I grieve not, for the steady ray 

Of peace is ever thine. 
And pure and tranquil is that rest 

Where thought, untroubled, flows, 
As waveless ocean, on whose breast 

The moon-beam seeks repose. 

Shut out from scenes of feverish joy, 

Removed from grovelling sense, 
Sublime indeed is thy employ 

With high Omnipotence. 
Far from the din of this low sphere, 

Its smiles, or frequent woe, 
Thou nearest a voice we cannot hear, 

Of things we cannot know. 



Thou drinkest of the crystal well, 
Whence living knowledge flows; 



MY CHILDREN. 93 



And on that fount is laid a spell, 
That shuts up human woes. 

Oh, never, never may the sigh 
Of agony, severe, 

Thy bosom rend, nor that mild eye 
Be dimmed with misery's tear ! 



MY CHILDREN. 



Ye are alive to bliss, my boys ; — 

Your pulses beat in healthful play ; 
Visions of peaceful heartfelt joys — 

Do they not hover o'er your way? 
Your bounding bosoms, light and free, 

Know not of past or future care ; 
Sufficeth it alone, that ye 

The bright alluring Present share. 

'Tis transient all — yet who shall break 
The fair frail mirror of your mirth? 



94 



MY CHILDREN. 



Ye are but dreamers ; who shall wake 

Ye to realities of earth? 
Dream on ! dream on ! it cannot last ; 

With boyhood will depart that dream; 
And soon, to retrospect, the Past 

But shadows of the dead shall seem. 

Who would forget, that when a child, 

Life put on lovely robes for him? 
That then imagination, wild, 

Flashed in the eyes that now are dim? 
Who can forget when Hope danced high, 

And Syren Love of witchery sung ? 
Some may forget, but ne'er shall I, 

The white-winged hours when joy was young. 



Yes, though upon my tempered brow 

Romance hath ceased to bind her flowers, 
'Tis pleasant as I wander now, 

To linger o'er my childish hours. 
Green spot of life ! how sweet to gaze 

On bliss so simple, yet sincere ; 
To turn from the wild waste of days 

And feast my aching vision here. 



MY CHLLDKEN. 95 



Aye, smile, my boys ! 't were better so, 

Than darkly read the coming ill ; 
That chequered page the gray-haired know, 

But heedlessness is childhood's still. 
Blest ignorance ! Compassion's balm, 

To drug the life-cup of our tears ; 
Existence, thou wouldst wear a charm 

Did prescience come not with thy years. 

Laugh on, my children, while ye may ; — 

Yours now is not the actor's part; 
Your laugh perhaps in future day, 

May vainly hide an aching heart. 
Yet lingers in your perfect bliss, 

Ingenuous feeling, brightly new ; 
And childhood's love and childhood's kiss 

Are ever holy, ever true. 



96 GIRARD COLLEGE. 



GIRARD COLLEGE, PHILADELPHIA 



His current name, that graced, for years, a Bank, 
Now that Death's veto cuts him off from pelf — 
Shines on a College. Wellj the idol Self 

Has yet oblation. For the boon we thank 

Not his compassion ; it, like him, was lank. — 
But, oh ! just Truth, how surely what men sow, 
And that alone — for good or bad will grow ! 

This offering, to his god, of odor rank, 

This eager pyramid of modern days, 

This glorious marble mass, to Heaven up-piled, 
At cost of millions, for the Orphan Child, 

Presents of Unbelief no doubtful phase. 

So, by the beauty that commands our praise, 
As by a hideous wonder, is the ground defiled. 



A SAPrHIC FOR THANKSGIVING. 97 



A SAPPHIC FOR THANKSGIVING 



When the old Fathers of New England sought to 
Honor the Heavens with substance and with first 

fruits, 
They, with their blessings — -all uncounted — sum- 
med up 

Their undeservings. 

They praised Jehovah for the wheat sheaves 

gathered ; 
For corn and cattle, and the thrifty orchards ; 
Blessings of basket, storehouse, homestead, hamlet ; 

Of land and water. 



98 A SAPPHIC FOR THANKSGIVING. 

They praised Jehovah for the Depth of 

Riches 
Opened and lavished to a world of penury; 
Mines — whose red ore, unpriced, unbought, is 

poured from 

Veins unexhausted. 

They made confession of their open errors ; 
Honestly told God of their secret follies ; 
Afresh their service as true vassals pledged 
Him; 

And then were merry. 

Strong was their purpose ; Nature made them 

nobles ; 
Religion made them kings, to reign forever! 
Hymns of Thanksgiving were their happy faces, 

Beaming in music. 

Gone are the Pilgrims ; — silent years behold us 
Onward in science ; backward in true greatness ; 
Realms we can master - — not our sins ; — rule 
lightning, 

Not tyrant passion. 



A SAPPHIC FOR THANKSGIVING. 99 

Lingers affection for their hallowed customs, 
Throb yet these pulses — may the fact redeem 

us! — 
Glows the warm influence in New England's bosom, 

Beating to Goodness. 

Beating all proudly, as upon her Fathers' 
Green glorious graves and eloquent old tombstones, 
She reverently throws garlands, born to blossom 

Summer and Winter. 

Darkly we wander where we've sadly fallen 
From the grand heights of their majestic beauty, — 
Marred by our folly. — Yet we praise Jehovah, 

The Children's Ruler. 

We praise Jehovah ! — though within our censer 
Burns other incense than a glad oblation ; 
With the deep thunders of New England's anthem 

Wail notes of sorrow. 

Troubled our praises, and our hymns discordant; 
Art Thou, O God, on Gerizim or Ebal ? 
The malediction hear we — hear the blessinjr, 

Strangely confounded. 



LofC. 



100 



A SAPPHIC FOR THANKSGIVING. 



We weep before Thee that a veil flung over 
Our comely Zion, hides Thee from thy Daughter; 
Shuts out the sunlight ; makes her spirit torpid, 

And her heart icy. 

We sigh before Thee that debasing Mammon 
Has built his temples our wide nation over ; 
In which the worldling, moralist, and Christian 

Equally worship. 

We wail before Thee that the sparkling wine-cup 
Crowns entertainments ; and the poor man's 

beverage 
That devil, Rum is, in despite of suasion, 

Legal or moral. 

We mourn in sackcloth that through our Republic 
The Sabbath-breaker's evil spirit rages, 
Infests the market, factory, steamboat, yea and 

Smokes o'er the railroad. 



We weep in ashes that pure love of country 
Yields to the mighty tide of base corruption ; 
Wrestlers for lucre, pleasure, and ambition, 

* Are victors ! — rulers ! 



From the proud summit of their lofty virtue 
Look down the patriots of the olden time, 
To see our purchased and obsequious statesmen 

Most deeply fallen. 

And, shame to Freemen ! Freedom's sunny jewel 

Lies in the shadow of a foul eclipse ; 

This hour their injuries clamor to high Heaven 

Three Million Voices ! 

We blush in scarlet that to comfort slaverv, 
Aid and encourage purposes of Avarice, 
A stolen province swells our vast possessions, — 

Our dreadful audit ! 

And to fill quickly the infernal measure 
Of suicidal guilt and matchless folly, 
Our youth and manhood, burning with mad valor, 

Haste to the battle; — 

Spurn the brave North — her strong hills and 

green vallies, 
To lay their bodies in the chapperalls, 
Or bleach on deserts ; hecatombs uncounted 

To empty Conquest. 



102 



A SAPPHIC FOR THANKSGIVING. 



Murder and Rapine — harpies — are seen perching 
On the broad banner that once led to Glory; 
" Glory ! " what art thou ? — infamy ! Thou 
" Eagle ? " — 

A carrion vulture ! 

Oh, can we triumph that audacious robbers 
Skulk, like assassins, through the Aztec city?—- 
Sit in high places where swayed Indian princes 

Barbaric sceptre ? — 

Warriors, inflamed by horrid lust and bloodshed, 
Accursed polluters ! violate sweet virgins, 
Shoot down the women who the hurt are soothing — - 

Angels of Mercy ! 

Oh, can we triumph that the peaceful dwellings 
Of men, defenceless, have been wrapt in burnings, 
White locks gore-spattered, and the cherub infant, 

Shrieking and writhing, 



Is tost on bayonets of infuriate soldiers, — 

Men hot with hell and drunk with Mexic crimson ? — 

Can we exult in the loud lamentations 

Our Rachels utter? 



A SAPPHIC FOR THANKSGIVING. 103 



Can we exult o'er gallant gay commanders 
Smitten to earth? or in the wholesale butchery 
Of rank and file, which steel and ball by thousands 

Hurried to Judgment? 

And the survivors ! — how the soul is blasted 
By the fierce fever of the camp a*nd tent-field! 
Well may they envy comrades who are food now 

For the dull earth-worms ! 

Mourn we the hundreds, crippled, crushed, and 

broken, 
Limping in rags home to their loved New England ; 
Cursing the phantom that allured them and the 

Bounty that bought them. 

Stay, burdened spirit ! — wonder that the hail storm 
Merited richly, is not yet commissioned ; — 
"Wonder, that rains not on thy guilty country 

Gomorrah's portion. 

Take the Thanksgiving, God ! that hope is left us 
In the great legacy we still inherit 
Of glorious Freedom, and the blessed Gospel's 

Solemn Probation. 



Now, as we gather round our loaded tables, 
May the pure rain-drops of repentance welling, 
Mingle with gladness ; and the low confession 

With the thank-offering ! 

Tears, that from Virtue grievously we've wandered; 
Humble confessions for ourselves and nation ; 
Covenant renewed that we will henceforth ever 

Cleave to Jehovah. 

So, in His merits, whose dear footprints, bleeding, 
Tracked up Salvation's way on Calvary, 
We, finding peace, shall keep a pure Thanksgiving 

Here and in Heaven. 
November, 1847. 



105 



OH, STARS! 



Oh, Stars ! upon the brow of night 
Ye look from yonder fields of blue, 

Where ye, 'mid melody of light, 

Bright wheeling worlds ! your way pursue. 

Ye never tire, — - pure diadems, 

The marshalled sentinels on high — 

Ye shine, and ever shine, the gems 
That deck the curtain of the sky. 

Minstrels are ye — your early song 
Woke all the sons of God to mirth, 

When light and music flowed along 
In union o'er the newborn earth. 



106 



Ye Stars ! if aught ? t is yours to know 
Beyond your own superior bourne. 

With pity have ye not below 

Glanced on these vales where mortals mourn ? 

While I behold your nightly march, 
Your anthems steal upon my ears — 

As sprinkled o'er yon glittering arch, 
Ye wake the music of the spheres. 

9 T is fancy ! — yet the soothing strains 
Come o'er my soul with influence, blest ; 

They tell of brighter, fairer plains, 

Where troubles cease and- pilgrims rest. 



HYMN OF WELCOME. 107 



HYMN OF WELCOME, 

ON THE RETURN OF A PASTOR FROM EUROPE AND ASIA 



" The Soul, immortal as its Sire," 
Is ne'er to time or place confined ; 
To spread the wings of keen desire, 
And fly abroad, belongs to Mind, 

'T were shame to stray from flower to flower 
Nor, like the bee, with purpose roam ; 

He's wise, who lades the wand'ring hour, 
And sends it, rich with honey, home. 

His path, whose head and heart are right, 
Is strown with Truth, like gems, impearled; 

To him the sky's a page of light — 
A book, unsealed, the wondrous world. 



108 



HYMN OF WELCOME. 



Thanks ! Gracious God ! thy servant thus 
Has reaped in Syria, Borne, and Greece ; 

And now, with golden sheaves for us, 
And songs to Thee, returns in peace. 

Thanks ! that his house, in weary lands 
And thirsty deserts, found the Rock, 

Whose streams, in Asia, filled their hands ; 
Whose waters here, refreshed the flock. 



Accept the vow! accept the praise*! 

And oh! let angels still descend 
Where he and we memorials raise 

To Christ, the grateful Traveller's Friend. 



HYMN. 109 



HYMN, 

SUNG AT THE CELEBRATION OP THE LELANI) FAMILY, AT SHERBURNE. 



O God of Bethel ! from Thy hands 
Thy gift, the social compact came, 

To heal and clasp in pleasant bands 
The scattered wrecks of Adam's shame. 

Its blessings of superior birth 

Enrich no selfish, lonely man ; — 
" Let children's children take the earth ! " 
The covenant thus with Abr'am ran. 

The chain that binds and leaves it free 
Is by the willing heart confessed ; 

We kiss the golden links, for we 
In servitude so sweet are blessed. 
10 



110 HYMN. 

Thanks ! that Thy favor, as the dew, 

Lies all night on the good man's ground; 

And mercies, like the morn, renew 
Their beauty where the just is found, 

Thanks ! that the seed from Albion's stock 
Struck widely here a vigorous root,— 

Which, pushing through the sand and rock, 
Has grown and yielded precious fruit. 

Thanks ! that around this goodly vine 
The graceful branches, as they fail, 

Like Jacob's clusters, intertwine - — 
Like Joseph's, overleap- the wall. 

Let benedictions yet abound ! 

These multiply and fully bless, 
By families with plenty crowned- — 

By kindreds who shall Thee confess ! 



MRS. MARY E. VAN LENNEP. Ill 



MRS. MART E. VAN LENNEP 



ON READING HER MEMOIR BY HER MOTHER. 



I knew her not; — a fountain here 
Reflects her beauty to my sight; 

Its fair proportions mirrored clear, 
And beaming with effulgent light. 

I see a soul mature and true ; 

Of taste refined, and noble parts ; 
And earnest love, that simply knew 

A short sweet way to kindred hearts. 



* Only daughter of Rev. Joel Hawes, D.D., of Hartford, 
Ct., and wife of Rev. Henry J. Van Lennep, Missionary to 
the Armenians ; among whom she died at Pera, Sept. 27, 1844, 
aged 23. 



112 



MRS. MARY E. VAN LENNEP. 



The lineaments are all divine ; — 
The glorious form and starry eyes 

Are such as meet and softly shine 
In holy ones that walk the skies. 

She loved mankind of every creed; 
"Her neighbor" dwelt in every zone; — 
And life she loved, might she indeed 
Bless him with mercies like her own ! 

" They serve who wait," — and thus did she, 
Whose work, where flames the Eastern sun, 
Was planned, commenced and wrought while we 
Beheld it only as begun. 

From dawn to twilight's fading ray 

Some linger on the Master's ground, — • 

Threescore and ten their weary day, — 
And such, at last, are "faithful" found; — 

Oh ! not by hours, or full or few, 

Our gracious Lord the toil computes, — ' 

Some, ere exhales the morning dew, 
At morn retire with sheaves and fruits. 



f 



THE BURMAN'S QUESTION. 113 

And she, whose worth is here impearled, 
Where skill maternal sets the gem — 

By labor brief has blest the world, 
And early won her diadem. 



THE BURMAN'S QUESTION 



DO THE DISCIPLES IN AMERICA DRINK ARDENT SPIRITS 



Men, crossing the blue wave, have told 
To Burmah of the God who first 

Spoke out this starry world of old, — 
To whom the stars and worlds are dust. 

His voice we hear, and we obey ! 

Nor fear contempt, or shame, or loss; 
Once proudly vile, we now will lay 

Our folly's pride beneath the cross. 

We'll bear reproaches for His sake 
Who for the Burmese died, and we 
10* 



114 



THE BURMA.N S QUESTION, 



Will gladly persecution take 

For Him whose blood hath stained the tree. 



Yet, how may we the censure meet, 
That spots Religion's lovely robe, 

And shows an idol on the seat 

Of Him who formed and guides the globe? 

For far beyond the Indian sea, 

Where heaven lets down unwonted light, 
His purchased followers bend the knee 

To Alcohol, the fiend of night. 

Our hearts for God! — yet while we doubt, 

And fear, like those, to yield Him up, 
Around us rings the scornful shout, 
" Do your disciples kiss the cup ? " 

Do western Christians fondly reach 

The bottle to a neighbor's lip ? 
A deed that Boodh may never teach! 

A cup Gaudama durst not sip ! 

Men of the clime where Truth has trod, 
Earth's million falsehoods to condemn, 

Tell us, seek they another God ? 
Or is not Jesus, God for them ? 



THE CASTAWAY. 115 



THE CASTAWAY. 



" The sentiment has very generally gained credence that the 
reformation of drunkards is a hopeless undertaking. Facts teach 
us to renew our efforts to pluck them from the fire, though half 
consumed. They may yet be recovered and become useful 
members of society. 1 ' 

Thou'st snatched the youth from Kuin's grave, 

And dashed to earth his chain ; 
And bade him sit, no more a slave, 

A man with men again. 



Thou'st rescued from the Sorcerer, when 
Hope failed to chase the spell; 

Thou'st broken caste, that sundered men 
Wide as the doors of hell. 



116 



THE CASTAWAY. 



To crush the cup, concealed in flowers, 

Its garlands to untwine, 
Is godlike toil — the fruit is ours, 

The triumph, Temperance ! thine. 

Nor mean that victory — with its song 

Is stirred the warriors' graves: 
And cries ring thence, in trumpet-tongue, 
" Our sons no more are slaves ! " 

Magician of unequalled power ! 

Who but thyself could dare 
To seek the lion in his hour, 

And beard him in his lair ? 

5 T is well — 't is more — 't is nobly done ; 

Thy recompense, by far 
I'd choose, than jewelled sceptre won 

By emperor or czar, 



Yet, angel! or whate'er thou art, 
Thy gaze turn thou on him, 

For whom this world hath little part, 
Whose hope beyond is dim. 



THE CASTAWAY. 



117 



For fell remorse is his, and fast 
The serpent hath him bound ; 

With gripe of death its folds are cast 
His inmost soul around. 

He bathed his boyhood in the cup, 
In poison quenched his prime; 

Its fires have drunk existence up, 
And now he "bides his time." 

There are dear ones to share his woe, 

He will not sink alone ; 
His spirit's lease is linked unto 

Jehovah's moveless throne. 

And him — -eternity's proud heir — 
Shouldst thou, for aye, pass by, 

And leave in all his blank despair 
A castaway to die ? 



Oh, strive ! till longer that dark way 
He will not, cannot tread; 

But walks forth into cheerful day, 
The living from the dead. 



118 



THE VOICE OF THE SEA. 



THE VOICE OF THE SEA. 



" The Missionaries write of a revival on board the ship, on her 
passage to India." 

The waves of passion may be stayed where lordly 
billows toss, 

The journey ers of the deep may be the followers 
of the cross ; 

'Mid storms that strain his gallant ship, the mari- 
ner in faith 

May hear what He who humbled once the surging 
waters saith. 



The Yoice at Sea ! — the Voice that wakes the - 

sailor from his dream, 
Is that which speaks in rushing floods and in the 

gentle stream, 



THE VOICE OF THE SEA. 119 

And in the forest's harmony, when all its trees 

rejoice ; 
In cottages, in palaces, — it is the Spirit's Voice. 

Dost see yon vessel like a bird on ocean's wilder- 
ness? 

Oh, there go some whose lofty looks are changed 
to lowliness ; 

Upon them Love has shed its dews ; from head to 
garment's hem 

They 're bathed — old things are past, — the Dove 
has overshadowed them. 

And iron men, who never quailed upon the yield- 
ing mast, 

Have feared then* sin, and sought the few whose 
lot with heaven is cast. 

And lips that left us with a curse — thou hear'st 
them as they pass — 

On Hoogly meekly learn to pray, and hail with 
hymn, Madras ! 

Thou seest the Spanner of the Deeps, who scoops 

the waves their bed, 
Is where the lowly sailor weeps, and marks each 

tear that 's shed ; 



120 THE VOICE OP THE SEA. 

And, unconfined to minster walls and carved and 

gilded fane, 
Bends o'er the hammock where he calls and soothes 

the sinner's pain. 

Sweet to the troubled mariner, aloft on quivering 

shrouds, 
It is to look in confidence beyond the warring 

clouds, 
And know, when by deceitful winds, at starless 

midnight driven, 
There shineth down upon his path the guiding ray 

of Heaven. 

And sweet to us that interchanged the lingering, 
last farewell, 

Sustained by Him who chideth not when tides of 
sorrow swell — 

To know that He went down with them that busi- 
ness do at sea, 

And in their noble vessel showed the power of Deity. 

And praise to Him whose presence cheered that 

missionary ship, 
And wrought, with sure and silent power, such 

change of soul and lip ! 



THE VOICE OF THE SEA. 121 

Yes, praise to Thee ! the barks that speed thy 

sacramental host, 
Thou overshadowest in their need, Wing of the 

Holy Ghost! 

And still'st the elemental strife, subduing every sin ; 

By Thee the sea restores to life the dead that were 
therein : 

In hearts of those that shun thy truth, the way- 
ward and the strong, 

Thou put'st its shining, searching edge, and in their 
mouth a song. 

Then, parent! whose unhappy child has left the 

peace of home, 
And left its dear and virtuous love, in distant 

ways to roam, — 
Be comforted, and for him plead, though he has 

thoughtless trod, 
And long been lost, this hour he may be found at 

last of God. 

# 
In watches of the night, when hushed are winds 

and sleeps the wave, 

His thought may homeward turn to rest upon a 

father's grave ; 

11 



I 

122 THE VOICE OF THE SEA. 

Or on the countenance of her that led his step 

above 
In youth, and on remembered words dropt by a 

mother's love. 

In pauses of the northern storm a Yoice may come 

with power, 
And meet him in the tropic breeze, at evening's 

quiet hour; 
O, who can shun His presence who may from the 

Spirit flee ? 
For omnipresent, Lord ! thou art, and in Thy 

hands are we. 



TO J 



The fool, who counts by millions yellow wealth, 
Disbursing it at Pity's call by stealth 
So secret, that to Heaven 't is never known, — 
And, dying, vests in mortar, brick, and stone 
The swollen mass for Hospitals, may place 
Assume with benefactors of his race. 



^Mr. A. is a resident of Boston, a man in humble life, who de- 
votes much of his time to the relief of the distresses of those of 
his fellow creatures, suffering from poverty or the effects of vice. 
He has been wonderfully successful in reclaiming the fallen. 
During the past year, in our criminal courts, he has bailed 137 
prisoners, most of whom were drunkards and minors. During 
the past six years, Mr. A. has become bail for 636 persons, the 
whole amount of his bonds being $45,750, and only in a single 
instance has he been compelled to pay his bonds, and then only 
for $100. About three quarters of the prisoners that have expe- 
rienced Mr. A.'s merciful interposition, have become permanently 
reformed. 



124 TO J A . 

The rich man, who to Penury's gaunt heir 
Doles from his purse a homeopathic part, 
Is straightway lauded, as if Soul and Heart 
Could possibly in this have any share ; 
As if proud Rank could hear the widow's prayer ; 
Inflated Splendor from its stilts descend 
To be unto the fatherless a friend ; 
Or Meanness willingly could pittance spare.— 
But Thou, whose advent no paid poet told, 
Whose humble name in life's plain pathway lies, 
Though reckoned with the Peerage of the Skies — 
Whose heart of hearts was never bought or sold — 
To garner Coin and Fame art truly wise ! 
For where the canker ne'er in crusts the gold, 
Nor calumny consumes, thy treasure 's sure — 
Laid up and hidden with God's chosen Poor. 

1848. 



L — e A 



She has gone from our sight to the regions of 

bliss ; 
— Her passage was brief through the valley of 

tears — 
For a world that was perfect relinquishing this ; 
These moments of time for eternity's years. 

She was here as a pilgrim; yet not as a mark 
For the arrows of trouble that constantly Hew ; 
The path of existence, so tangled and dark, 
Was pleasant to her, for the Leader was true. 

Oh, no ! the sad record of thousands that weep 
From the cradle all down to the sheltering tomb, 
11* 



Belongs not to her who is folded in sleep — 
A bud that was opening in beauty and bloom. 

For pure and serene were the tints of her sky ; 
Every cloud, intercepting, fled swiftly and far; 
Or if ever a shadow came wandering by, 
To her it seemed only a radiant star. 

She lived in the smiles we were prompt to bestow, — 
And we deemed on that circle a charm had been 
Yet entered its precincts the confident Foe, [laid; 
To retreat at the faith of a suffering maid. 

We gathered, in grief, about her, who had shed 
O'er our studies and pastime the light of her heart ; 
And we saw in the beam on the face of the dead 
A token of kindness to soften the smart. 



It sharpened our pangs, that the festival hour* 
Was the one to be dimmed by her funeral rite ; 
And that she, of our garden of gladness the flower, 
We must leave in her morning to dampness and 
night, 

* The burial was on the same same day that her beloved com- 
panions in the Seminary assembled for the last time in that term. 



WINTER. 127 



But she lives in the hearts that are weeping behind ; 
And though the frail mansion is laid in the sod, 
The soul that informed it, pure, sinless, refined, 
Is singing and shining and gazing on God. 

1848. 



WINTER. 



Winter ! there are among the race of men, 
Strangers to thought, who slander thee ; 

Thy frowns appall, thy smiles escape their ken ; — 
Yet beautiful the garb thou wear'st to me. 

I love thy rocking storms to hear ; 

Thy blasts, that bid the aged mountains nod, 
Thy winds are music to my ear, — 

To me their murmuring is the voice of God. 

Parent of kindly charities ! 

'Tis thine to thaw man's heart — the frigid soul, 



128 WINTER. 



Sterner than frost, is melted, nor denies 

Its aid to bid the troubled heart " be whole ! " 

"Winter ! thou 'rt not austere ; 

Though frozen be thy aspect, bliss is thine 
Unknown to fairer May; for on thy shrine 

Is often seen the grateful orphan's tear. 

Parent of treasures, thou ! 

Should I not love thee ? 0, can aught compare 
With thy dear fireside joys ? — ■ the tranquil brow, 

The wife's warm smile and children's kiss are there. 



LOOKING TO JESUS. 129 



LOOKING TO TILE CROSS — LOOKING TO JESUS. 



"Just before he died, the Bishop exclaimed, ' 0, what a com- 
fort it is in looking to Christ ! I scarcely like to use that expres- 
sion, common as it is, of looking to the Cross ; it is a figurative 
term ; whereas I want something substantial.' " — The late Bishop 
of Salisbury. 

The dying papist clasps the cross ; — 
His lips the sign of Mercy kiss ; — 

A brighter world repairs the loss 
He suffers in his flight from this. 



Tractarians on the bauble gaze 

That bribes the neophyte to Rome ; 

Poor flies ! allured by " candle " blaze. 

They singe their wings and meet their doom. 



130 



LOOKING TO JESUS. 



Decrepit Rome, with crucifix, 

May grope her way to dubious light; 
And Oxford learn the juggling tricks 

That change the gospel's noon to night; 

Yet, when I dip in Jordan's flood, 

And sentient mind and flesh give way, 

I ask no gilt or ivory god 

To aid my hope and be my stay. 

O! more than blossoms, leaves, and root 
Of Calvary's plant my bruises need ; 

The tree can never heal — its fruit 
Is oil and balm and life indeed. 

He who upon its branches hung 

Must be my joy and boast and pride ; 

In life and death, my soul and tongue 
Will only mention Him who died. 



While Fopes with lifted banners cry: 
"Look to the Cross, for you unfurled 
Through tears of grief and joy will I 
Look to the Saviour of a world. 



ORDINATION HYMN. 131 

For on the Rock my fathers chose, 
On which, secure, the children stand, 

I plant my foot; — dash here, ye foes, 
And break and scatter round the land! 



ORDINATION HYMN. 



His ministers, as fiery flames, 

Are darting all abroad; 
The Lord has come ! — ye lesser names 

Sink down before our God. 

Hark ! to the world's millenial hymn ; 
How sweet the chorals run ! 
" As ever by the Cherubim, 
By man Thy will is done." 

Father, thus thy word redeem, 
Thus give thy Son his right, 

Proclaimed in Eden's morning beam, — 
Confirmed in Calvary's night. 



132 



ORDINATION HYMN. 



And bless Thy Churchy who, watch and ward, 

In calm or battle keeps; 
Pleads for the advent of her Lord, 

And o'er its tarrying weeps. 

And bless her warriors who replied 
When Danger's trumpet blew ; - — 

Who now are fighting at her side, 
And winning glory too. 

And bless Thy servant who obeys, 

And seeks the field to-day;- — 
Thyself, encompassing his ways, 

His buckler in the fray. 

By him, let Age be strong indeed, 

And let the Children win ; 
On every lance an error bleed, 

Each blow a death to Sin. 



By him let broken hearts be healed, 
The slaves of vice unbound ; 

New vigor every blessing yield, 
And fragrance every wound. 



HYMN. 



133 



So, to the Saviour's earnest cry, 

May Heaven and Earth, as one, 
Take alleluias, and reply: 
" God, Thy will is done ! " 



n y i n . 

SUNG AT THE INSTALLATION OF REV. S. HUTCHINGS, LATE MISSIONARY TO 
INDIA ; AT SOUTH BROOKFIELD, MASS., SEPT. 15, 1847. 

He, who, recalled from Gentile lands, 
Submits to Heaven's mysterious will, 

Has yet the censer in his hands, 
And girds him for the altar still. 

And if, where Ceylon's soft winds blow, 

Or fiames the sultry Hindustan, 
He may not to the captive show 

How Mercy lifts and rescues man, — 

He may upon the Pilgrims' ground 
The Pilgrims' ancient doctrine preach ; 

And, where a purer creed is found, 

Its faith by word and practice teach ; — 
12 



And, with experience of his youth, 
And gentle hope, and love, and zeal, 

So recommend transparent truth, 

That mind shall grow, and conscience feel ; 

And on our hearts his woe impress 
Who sits where hell has flag unfurled, 

Till they will leap at once to bless 
With life the buried idol-world. 



So shall the gems he gathers here, 

With those he won from India's strand 

In Jesus' crown of stars appear, 

When sink the ocean, sky, and land. 



WHEN MORNING BREAKS. 135 



WHEN MORNING BREAKS UPON THE NIGHT, 



I. 

When morning breaks upon the night 

That wrapt the slave of sin, 
And, guided by its searching light, 
"The rebel sees within 

How Guilt upon the inner walls 

Its images portrays, 
To which the heart in worship falls, — 

Which every lust obeys ; — 



If sad conviction of his loss 
Is deepened to despair, 

Till, yielding at the holy Cross, 

He falls, a weeper there, — 



136 


WHEN MORNING BREAKS. 


He dies to sin; and only then 




Is certified of rest; 


For, 


in the storms that trouble men, 




He sleeps on Jesus' breast. 


How sweet, within the arms of Love, 




To sigh away the breath — 


And taste, in presence of the Dove, 




Eternal Life in Death ! 




II. 


And 


yet 'tis not enough to die 




To follies he has done; 


The 


waiting seats of bliss on high 




Are not so idly won. 


Tis 


not enough that Grace may lift 




The sunken from his woe ; ■ — 


The 


saint, redeemed, of Grace bereft, 




Will find his place below. 


He ; 


^et must die if he would live ; 




Die daily, hourly, still ; 


Die 


to the blessings Heaven may give ; — 




In sorrows die to will. 



WHEN MORNING BREAKS. 137 

Die — in the secret peace of God — 

To bufferings malign ; 
To meet half way and take the rod 

Is more than to resign. 

Die to his selfishness and pride; 

In life and failing breath, 
To all, with Christ, be crucified, 

And triumph in the death! 



12* 



138 



THE CHOLERA, 



THE CHOLERA. 



IN PROSPECT OF ITS SECOND LWASIof . 



With what a calm and self-confiding gait 
Cometh this Alaric, the Scourge ! — when first 
From Indian marshes the Destroyer burst, 
He girded on swift wings and could not wait. 
The helmed and sworded Minister of Fate 
Smote then the quaking nations, but to feel 
His future way, and prove his edge of steel, — 
And some score thousands could its sharpness sate. 
Would that his march, so silent, were less slow, 
And quickly sped ! — This gradual advance 
Tokens, I fear, an Arm upon whose lance 
Shall millions bleed. Yet comes the dreadful Foe, 
Who his own prowess hath sure cause to know, 
And our sad impotence sees at a glance. 

1848. 



VEKSES. 139 



VERSES 

WRITTEN AFTER HEARING THE SPEECHES IN FANEU1L HALL, ON A LATE 
ANNIVERSARY OCCASION. 

On this " broad platform " grimly stand 
Fanaticism's earnest band. 

Earnest, but erring — Oh, reflect, 
How dire, perverted intellect ! 

I see their eyes of maniac-glare, 

I hear their words, and hell is there. 

Evil of dignities they speak, 

With venom strong, with logic weak. 

Infuriate age, and zealot youth 
Amaze the rabble with untruth. 



140 



"VERSES. 



Blow follows blow ! shocks follow shocks ! 
The Bible sinks ! the Pulpit rocks ! 

" I never spoke in Faneuil Hall 
Before, yet have an inward call 

" To say, if Sinai's Law this rod 
Appoints, I want not Sinai's God, 

" If Calvary's Sufferer this curse 
Takes not away, no Christ for us. 

" If Christians who love Slavery well 
At last win Heaven, give me Hell. 

"Hear me! who've tenanted — time fails 
To tell how many — loathsome jails. 

" Ye worm word words ! invective stings ! 
Concentrate of all bitter things ! 

" Ye Balaams ! cluster, thick as leaves, 
To curse the Brotherhood of thieves." 



Blow follows blow ! shocks follow shocks ! 
The Bible sinks! the Pulpit rocks! 



VERSES. 141 



And Woman, in her beauty, pleads ; 
And rheumy Age, in widow-weeds. 

One sways, like felon in a noose ; 
One yells, as Bedlam were broke loose. 

One — who at home doth wear the breeches 
Knits hose, and drops and takes up stitches. 

One, of most liberal spirit, deems 
The follower of the Koran's dreams, 

The worshipper of pagan Boodh, 
The swearer by the Holy Rood, 

Believers in the land of Nod, 
Or scorners of the Book of God, 

Who think of Jesus Christ not much — 
(One said : " I hope that here are such ! ") 

Alike, may on this platform stand, 
All welcome to the motley band. 

Alike, may jabber, fume, and squeak ; 
All equal, — Mormon, Jew, and Greek. 



142 



VERSES. 



And these — who spew out slimy wit, 
And dip their weapons in the pit; 

And pour forth blasphemies, too rank, 
If even Christ were mountebank ; 

And shame the devil by their sin, 
And hope, at last, success to win; 

And scorn to be with polish cumbered — 
Are with the gentle Cl arks on numbered! 

Yes ! these, who make their 'cause pretence 
To outrage decency and sense; 

Who Freedom in their vileness steep, 
And make the friends of Freedom weep; 

Whose " Resolutions " breathe out slaughter ; 
Who drink up sin like filthy water ; 

These, at his pure and blessed source, 
They say, sucked in with Wilberforce ! 



My spirit spurns such rude allies; 
I march not with a flag that lies. 



STANZAS. 



143 



I pity and I shun them — I, 

Who for the Slave would toil and die. 

Who, if to snap his hateful link, 
Demanded principle, must shrink. 

Wlio, to win Freedom — gem unpriced ! — 
Will not my freedom sell, nor Christ, 

Who, for my fellows, asks success 

On thoughts, words, deeds, that God will bless. 



STANZAS. 



How blessed the heir, unvexed by trouble, 
Heav'n's legacy who hath not spent; — 

Who, counting earth a passing bubble, 
Above its pomp secures content. 

Thirsts he along Life's weary journey ? 

Its wayside fountains fill his cup ; 
Called out with bucklered Care to tourney ? 

He meets the conflict, visor up. 



144 STANZAS. 



With passions, in Life's earnest races, 
Contends he? and that prize the soul? 

He presses on, unheeding traces 

Of footsteps, past, and wins the goal. 

Heart's -ease, his flower, he ever weareth ; 

Subdued and simple is his will; 
And while of peace the proud despaireth, 

His, like a river, floweth still. 

Mortal — to-day he meeteth sorrow, 

Such as the thoughtless never scanned ; 

Yet, darkness past, what light, to-morrow, 
Breaks on him from the Spirit-land! 



TO REV. MESSRS. DR. B. AND G. 145 



TO REV. MESSRS. DR. B. AND G. OF ENGLAND, 



Ye've sought our western shore 
In friendliness, — on holy errand bound. 

The Christian fellowship ye hither bore, 
With us sojourning, ye have freely found. 

Ye've trodden the rich soil 
Once wet with patriot blood ; where the green graves 

Of the old warriors are; — men, not of spoil, 
Not fearing Death ; — who feared to live as slaves. 

Ye 've seen from Plymouth Rock 
High influence spread — wide as the nation spreads ; 

And still in person, family, and flock, 
Quickening (he ray which the pure gospel sheds. 
13 



14:6 TO REV. MESSRS. DR. B. AND G. 

The arena of the last 
Great conflict ye have seen, and where shall dwell 

In centuries of bliss, the Church, when past 
Her warfare, and when bound the prince of hell. 

New England's pleasant dales, 
And lands beyond the Alleghany, ye 

Have visited. Our noble prairies, vales 
And rivers seen ; — fit region of the Free. 

" Fit region ? " • — ye have seen 
The black man cowering to the dreadful whip ; 

Where Slavery turns the fruitful ground to lean, 
Ye Ve heard the curse his heart sent to the lip ! 

Ye 've marked on fields of fame 
The heaving dome ; — seen Commerce urge his 

wheel 
Where Ruin dwelt ; and where the battle's flame 
Swept our fair towns, bright peace her Star reveal. 

" Bright Peace ? " — and how we send 
Our volunteers, ambassadors of woe, 

To murder men ; babes, mothers, dwellings blend 
In one infernal doom — tells Mexico ! 



TO REV. MESSRS. DR. B. AND G. 147 

Return with tears for such 
Monstrous perversion of the gifts of God ! — 
With deep conviction that our nation much 
May fear — and speedily — his righteous rod. 

Return with faith and hope 
That our fair land from idols will return ; 

And on her altars, through the Atlantic slope 
And sunny south and west, pure sacrifice shall burn. 

Return with songs ! — delights 
Of sacred home shall win once more your smiles ; 

"We will rejoice that a new bond unites 
Our own dear country with the British Isles. 

And as again ye tread 
Your sea-girt, lovely Albion, and review 

The hours that pleasantly among us fled — 
Think ! — with us linger thoughts and prayers for you. 



148 TO THE CHINESE LADL 



TO THE CHINESE LADY. 



I marvel at thy curious mien, 
Thy strange, fantastic air ; 

And yet, with us there may be seen 
Some belles as proudly fair! 

I marvel at thy accent, too, 

That tells a far-off land; 
And ponder, as I scan thy shoe, 

How thou canst walk or stand. 

Thine oriental parlor is 

To wondering eyes a feast ; 
Though not a real pagoda, 'tis 
" A Chinese hall," at least 



I 



Descendant of an ancient line, 
That higher looks than Eve, — 

Sprung from a root almost divine, 
Or quite, as some believe, — 



I think with interest on thee, 

Thy foreign speech and birth, — 

Remembering God of one blood made 
The kindreds of the earth. 

Yet more — I think how lately we 
With prejudice had hemmed 

Thy nation, and how easily 
Its millions had condemned 

To ignorance, and utter gloom, 

And superstition's thrall ; 
And deemed thy empire but a tomb, 

As soulless as its wall, 

'Till we were better taught; and since 

A Morrison has toiled, 
And he, of mission-men, the prince — 

Gutzlaff, the error foiled — 
13* 



150 TO THE CHINESE LADY. 

And we have seen that on its nighty 
So hopeless and so long — 

Have fallen sparkles of the light 
That to the skies belong — 

We cherish the exalted faith, 
Life bursting from the dead- — 

That China quickly shall be one 
In Christ, the living Head. 



LA LANTEKNE VS. LA GUILLOTINE. 151 



LA LANTERNE vs. LA GUILLOTINE.* 



"Away to the Lanterne!"^ Republicans sung, 
When Paris with tocsins of Liberty rung; 
When law for the mob did tribunes manufacture 
(Law, like a frail potsherd, for villains to frac- 
ture), 
WTien the few for the good of the many must bleed, 
And justified still by the end was the deed, 
" Away to the Lanterne ! and hang by the neck 
Aristocrats, peers, at the plebeian's beck ; " 

* This piece tells its own story. A magnificent colossal Lan- 
tern, in front of Concert Hall, Boston, of curious device and rare 
workmanship, invites passengers to enter an elegant and fashion- 
able place of refreshment. 

f The frenzied cry of the Jacobins in the time of the Freneh 
Eevolution, when many who fell under the popular odium were 
hung on the lamp-irons, without judge or jury. 



152 LA LANTERNE YS. LA GUILLOTINE. 

And though, by the steel, blood of mother and 

daughter, 
Sire, son, wife, and husband, was poured out like 

water, 
The Lanterne won laurels, so quick and so clean 
Its work, that it rivalled the great Guillotine! 

Those days have gone by (we may say without 

flattery, 
They were days of dark doings, and bloodshed and 

battery) ; 
And though revolution, to shift on the throne 
One king for another, to us is unknown, 
Though horrid Sam-culottes ne'er- sharpen the axe, 
That in spoils of nobility they may go snacks, 
Though swearing fish-women, of snarled elfin locks, 
And Amazon fists, may not Royalty box, 
Though blood on our pavements in rivers don't 

run, 
Nor Tragedy stalk there in frenzy or fun, 
Yet we have our Lanterne, and soon shall be seen 
A rival in doings to great Guillotine ! 

Hush, fears ! we assure you we never will drive at 
Such brutal outbreakings ; our doings are. private ; 



We smear not our faces, we doff not our clothes, 
We've no truculent oath (though 'tis under the 

rose), 
Our Lanterne contemplates all politics right; 
We are Democrat, Whig, and somewhat Jacobite; 
With bow, smirk, and smiling, we gentlemen greet, 
For the ladies (soft souls), we have compliments 

sweet, 
We hail not new-comers with aw r kward ball-car- 
tridges, 
Though (once on our manor), we pluck them like 

partridges ; 
We know how to win them; success will be seen, 
Our Lanterne shall rival the great Guillotine ! 

And then to attract them, a token, a show, 

Or what you choose call it, to please folks, you 

know — 
We 've no rusty symbol, for who but an ass 
Would set up a scare-crow ? — our Lanterne is glass, 
All gilded, and soaring, pagoda-like, up, 
Where men worship gods that are carved on the 

cup; 
Most cunningly stained 'tis with curious device, 
Of " julep with spices" " sling-cobbler with ice ; " 



154 LA LANTERNE VS. LA GUILLOTINE. 

"Egg-nog" "tip and ty," "fiscal agent" at lunch; 
For supper, " stone wall" and "poor man's whiskey 

punch ; " 
Sure the de'il at invention of agents was mean 
In France, with La Lanterne and great Guillotine ! 

" Wormwood floaters" * have we, on which tipplers 

ma j float 
To the gulf of black death, where there 's never 

a boat ; 
"Knickerbocker" and "smasher" "veto" to make 

merry ; 
" Champagne" " brandy" " whiskey" good old " Tom 

and Jerry ;" 
"Mulled wine" "soda punch" for the delicate lip 
Of sisters and wives, who may secretly sip. 
Our Lanterne, blood-red, is no "beacon to warn," 
We laugh all such Temperance slanders to scorn ; 
Away to the Lanterne, young men ! for good cheer, 
Away to the Lanterne, young ladies ! nor fear ; 
For manhood is monarch, and beauty is queen 
At the Lanterne, the rival of great Guillotine ! 



* The unlearned are notified that these are the classic names 
of favorite intoxicating drinks, mingled and sold at this interest- 
ing establishment. 



LA LANTERNE VS. LA GUILLOTINE. 155 

Come, Epicures! skill shall as lordly a dish 
Prepare, as the sand ever gave of shell-fish. 
Whoever has money, to him we will sell. 
(The penniless loafer may " liquor " in hell) ; 
Spruce Clerk, who hast money! come hither and 

buy, 
Little Children, who gaze at our Lanterne, come, 

try! 
Though young, time nor money may stay with 

you long, 
Eat and drink ere both go like a bon vivant's song, 
Come Gay, and come Sober, Bucks, Bruisers, and 

all, 
Tall, Short, Wise, and Simple, come, buy at our 

call; 
Try all, and say all, if you don't find us keen, 
Our Lanterne 's a joke to the great Guillotine ! 



156 BEVERLY. 



BEVERLY. 



" They are all gone into a world of light, 
And I alone sit lingering here." 

Heivry Vaughan, — 1614. 

Yon starry world hath them received, 

All through their Saviour's grace ; 

And I, by hope once more deceived, 
Seek thee, my native place. 

Why seek? — Of their dim footsteps here 
Mine eye discerns no trace. 

One twelvemonth of my early span, 
They say, I measured here; 

Unknowing of the hopes of man, 
Unknowing of his fear; 

Too young to feel prospective pain, 
Or care, forever near. 



BEVERLY. 157 



Too young to know the tender bliss 
That 's laid about his way, 

Who goes to slumber with a kiss, 

From slumber wakes to play; 

His mother's treasure all the night, 
Her treasure all the day. 

I would that years could give me back 

That cynosure of joy", 
By which alone I 'd steer my, track, 

Forever but a boy; 
My tiny ocean always calm, 

My boat, a tireless toy. 

I would years subsequent I 'd given 

To thee, my native place ; 
Here lived for earth, here lived for heaven ; 

Like those, who, by his grace, 
Their Maker served in this sweet spot, 

And now behold His face. 

• 

I would in Memory's blotted book, 

A leaf I had of thee, 
Which I might sometimes turn, to look 

At careless Infancy, 
14 



158 BEVERLY. 

As others do, as others will, 

But which, is not for me. 

No ! — tost on a continual wave 
Am I of sorrow's strife, 

That only doth disclose a grave, 

With dole and darkness rife, 

He anguish knows, whose bark is beat 
By every sea of life. 

My native place ! — how falls the word 
In sweetness on the heart! 

A tear ? — away ! — it were absurd 
For idle tears to start; 

Or bitter thoughts to come, where I 
Have neither lot nor part. 



PRAYER FOR A SON AT SEA. 



My prayer goes up this Sabbath morn; — 
I cannot choose, this morn, but pray 

For him, my son, my eldest born, 
On ocean's desert, far away — 

That Thou, whose presence still is found 
Where Day's swift pinions farthest go, 

Wilt with that presence him surround — 
An .^Egis, fronting every foe. 

O sacred season ! blessed time ! 

To home and household memories given, 
When Sabbath calm and Sabbath chime 

So sweetly urge our flight to heaven. 



160 PRAEYR FOR A SON AT SEA. 

I see its glorious sunshine rest 

On field and flower, on spire and tree ; 

And thoughts, like birds, forsake their nest, 
And soar and fly, my God, to Thee. 

I hear the first wild hymn that swells 
From yonder quiring temple-grove ; 

I hear discourse those village bells 
Of nobler courts and hymns above. 

To-day, what thousands from their homes, 
In villages and towns, will pour 

To throng the heaven-directed domes, 
Thee, gracious Father, to adore ! 

Those at my home, my girl and boy, 
Arrayed by their fond mother's care — 

With willing steps and chastened joy, 
Will duly to Thy house repair. 

But one — whose little hand in mine 
Enclasped — whom I to worship led, 

Who early loved the Voice divine, 
Whose early tear for sin was shed — 



PRAYER FOR A SON AT SEA. 161 

Whose smile beguiled me oft of cares, 
Whose words, 't was music's self to hear, 

Round whom were reared faith's earnest prayers. 
For whom was dropt hope's frequent tear ; 

Whose manly gait 't was joy to see ; 

Whose open brow was honor's throne ; 
Whose morn gave promise unto me 

Of brilliant day — my child, my own, 

Is with the sailor, on the deep, 

Where bright and joyous hope is dim. 

I think upon my boy and weep ; 
I cannot choose but weep for him, 

Whose lot it is, afar to roam; 

No gentle tones to greet his ear ;• 
Shut out from all the peace of home ; 

No parent, with instruction near, 

To shield him from the dreadful sins 
That cluster round the sailor's way ; 

Exposed to one that wooes and wins 
The thoughtless, for a certain prey ; — 
14* 



162 PRAYER FOR A SON AT SEA. 

Exposed to bitter fears, lest he, 
Our careless, generous, absent one, 

May be forgotten ! — How could we 
Forget him — -our beloved Son? — 

Perhaps thick dangers wrap his form; 

Now yawns the deep beneath his feet; 
Around him howls the tropic storm ! 

The waters weave his winding sheet. 

Dark thought flies back; dark thought flies far, 
To home, to Sabbath, and to me ; 

O God ! light up for him the star 
That leads the wanderer unto Thee. 

And hear a father's broken prayer ; 

And keep him from a sudden grave ; 
Yet rather make his soul thy care ; — • 

From passion's storm my sailor save. 

And where the silent quicksands lie, 
Or murmuring breakers tell of doom, 

And trooping o'er the angry sky 

Are clouds, that deepen midnight's gloom-— 



ntAYER FOR A SON AT SEA. 1G> 

There! where strange terrors dimly frown, 
And fright his inexperienced youth, — 

About his feet flash freely down 
The splendors of unerring Truth. 

And guard him from the hopeless wreck, 
Which Mind so often makes of Mind. 

In silent watches on the deck, 
Or to his sleepless birth confined, 

May his reflections be of God, 

And prayer be on his heart and lip, 

That He, who once the billows trod, 

Who taught the people from the ship, — 

May walk the waves of his distress, 

And reach to him Almighty aid, 
And with compassion's teaching bless : 
" T is I ! 'tis I ! — be not afraid ! " 

Then to what winds his topsails swell, 

Then through what seas his keel may drive, 

Chainer of Waves when they rebel ! 
Soother ! when tempests are alive, — ■ 




My Boy, preserved, all peril past, — - 
Kept by thine ever watchful love, 

And safe from storms and seas at last, 
Shall anchor in the port above. 
Sunday Morning, July 4, 1841. 



TRAITS OF NATURE.* 



I. 
The flames advance with sweeping stride, 

Impatient to devour ; 
And cast their lurid light upon 

The scene of awful stour. 

" Oh ! cling, my child ! Oh ! cling to me ! 
Yet nearer! for I dread 
Those flames that wreathe so fearfully ; " — 
The mother wildly said. 

* " When the Steamer Lexington was burnt, January, 1840, in 
Long Island Sound, a child, partly scorched, was seen floating 
near the boat, quite dead ; its face was covered with a green veil." 



And closer to her throbbing heart, 
Where harm might ne'er annoy, 

With all a yearning mother's force, 
She pressed her little boy. 

And fiercer blazed the fiery doom ; 

She knew its presence near; 
For self, amid her mightier care, 

She had no thought or fear. 

" O mother ! save me ! for I feel 
The dreadful fire is nigh; 
It burns ! it burns ! Oh ! clasp me close ! 
Oh ! closer ! or I die ! " 

The frenzied mother, taught by love, 

Which only mothers know, 
To shield her little trembling boy 

From the devouring foe, 

Tears off her veil, and on his face 
Binds fast the fragile screen ; 

If thus she might that foe and him 
A barrier put between ! 



166 TRAITS OF NATURE. 



II. 

Night's dream pursueth me by day; — -* 

Still fancy doth behold 
Those upraised hands, to keep away 

The pitiless, keen cold. 

O Boy! thy suffering toucheth me 
Yet more than theirs, who met 

With manhood's stoic constancy, 
The doom that them beset. 

More eloquent thy helpless woes 

And thy imperfect pain, 
Than all the mightier pangs of those, 

Who battled fate in vain. 

For in the terrors of that hour 

Thou couldst not understand 
How she — whose watchful, shielding power 

Had ever been at hand, 

* " A little boy, four years old, was found in the boat, frozen ; 
with both hands pressed against his ears — the emblem of help- 
lessness in suffering. " 



TRAITS OF NATURE. 167 

To screen thee from the stormy strife, 

Which mortals here betide — 
How she, who, to protect thy life, 

Would willingly have died, 

Could see thee in that icy boat, 

Nor fly to save, nor why, 
Mid those strange horrors doomed to float — 

Thou shouldst be left to die. 

Methinks, as Cold around thy frame 

Its dreadful mantle flung, 
And chilled thy heart, thy mother's name 

Dwelt on thy moaning tongue. 

What thoughts of rescue briefly past, 
What fears, 't were vain to say ; 

Didst thou expect her till the last, 
To snatch her child away 

From the insidious, fatal sleep 

Of those who sleep to die? 
From the expectant, eager Deep, 

That, frowning, curled on high? 



168 



TRAITS OF NATURE. 



And, franticly, her babe from harms, 
To save such wealth too blest — 

To clasp within her straining arms, 
And hush upon her breast? 

Too busy she to heed thy fate ! 

She, too, has work with Death! 
On child and mother angels wait, 

To take the parting breath. 

O Boy ! the separation made 
Was short, indeed, to thee ; — 

A sigh — and on that bosom laid, 
To rest eternally. 



THE UNSPOKEN AT SEA. 169 



THE UNSPOKEN AT SEA. 



Why do n't one of the thousand ships 

That cross each other's different way, 
On Tropic waters, or where dips 

The rudder in some Orient bay, 
Meet her that left us months ago, 

With him on board, so dear to me — 
And give to winds that westward blow, 

Report of " Spoken far at Sea ? " 

Why do n't some homeward bark make sign, 
And catch the signal from her mast, 

Though there might not be word or line 
Of greeting, as each hurried past ? 

Such kindly act would hundred hearts, 

Now dark with doubt, light up with glee; 
15 



170 THE UNSPOKEN AT SEA. 

I 'm sure 't would mine : for hope departs, — 
She 's yet Unspoken on the Sea. 

I seize in haste the daily sheet; 

Nor business, news, nor fashion's call 
Allures me, so I may but see't — 

That name more welcome than them all ! 
I shudder at " Disasters," skip 

The " Cleared," — " Arrived" detains not me ; 
Then dash it down with quivering lip ; — 

She is Unspoken still at Sea. 

I speculate on chances; think 

How many sail o'er that blue main, 
Who meet and hail, depart and drink 

To such brief challenge yet again, — 
And wonder, in this lapse of time, 

These weary days, thrice told to me — 
Through various latitude and clime, 

She's yet Unspoken far at Sea. 

While yon great highway is alive 
With canvass, waving like sea-wings, 

And homeward countless vessels drive, 
And "homeward" every sailor sings, 



THE UNSPOKEN AT SEA. 171 

Say, is she of that caravan 

Companionless ? — and yet must she 

Of that long file be rear or van, — 
The Unspoken ship that's far at Sea? 

'T is false ! that dream of yesternight, 

When sorceress Fancy conjured up 
Ghosts of the past — each jeering sprite 

The prophet of a sadder cup ; — 
'T was not that ship I saw go down ! 

'T was not my boy who called on me, 
When ocean, gathering in one frown, 

Closed o'er the Unspoken ship at Sea! 

I know that Fear loves well to sketch 

The reeling mast, the shattered side, 
And lingers strangely round the wretch 

Who sinks in the remorseless tide ; 
And yet, in after days, such thought 

Has served for jest and laughter free, 
When favoring gales to port have brought 

The ship Unspoken on the Sea. 

I saw her sit upon the deep; 
She floated like a perfect thing, 



All conscious that she was to keep 
A gem, and back the treasure bring. 

I saw her beating first, as though 

She 'd coyly test her powers, — how she 

All proudly leaped, at length, and so 
She left us — -nor was Spoke at Sea! 

That voyage, — her first!- — we prosperous 
deemed 

Would be, when to the outward breeze 
She flung her sheets, like one that seemed 

Self-confident, and at her ease, 
Our cheers receiving as she past; 

The proud, good ship ! it cannot be, — 
O, no, that voyage is not her last, 

Though she 's Unspoken still at Sea. 

Her taper masts, her frame of oak, 

Grace, strength, in due proportion gave; 
From stem to stern, a braver woke 

Never the sleeping giant wave. 
She must, she shall outlive the blast 

That sends down navies ! Does not she 
Hold precious freight? Aye, she, at last, 

Will come, though Spoken not at Sea. 



LINES. 17o 



LINES, 

ON RECEIVING FROM THE AUTHOR A COPY OF " SCENES IN THE HOLT LAND." 



" Scenes in the Holy Land ! " — and I have walked 
In Palestine ; breathed Syria's air, and talked 
With elder Hebrews ; — and I have drawn near 
Apostles, yes, my Lord, without a fear. 
The glory seen that over Bethlehem hung ; 
The anthem heard that shining angels sung ; 
And star-led with the Shepherds to a stall, 
An Infant found the Monarch, Sire of All : 
Yes, seen him, who a little one became, 
That little ones may lisp and love his Name ; 
In riper years beheld him children bless, 
Of such his kingdom; Sickness seen, Distress, 
And Death, the victor, vanquished, from him fly ; 
15* 



174 LINES. 



Seen him rebuke the storm — walk waters, and 

with eye 
Of sorrow bent on lost Jerusalem, 
Discern her miseries and weep o'er them; 
Beheld him at the Supper — sinful me ! 
Seen tears of God bedew Gethsemane ; 
Seen him, a felon, led to Pilate's hall, — 
Die on the Roman Cross — earth wrapt in pall 
Of pitying Darkness ; — marked him from the tomb 
Rise, and bid o'er it Resurrection bloom. 
Thanks for such " Scenes ! " — Not idly have I 

scanned 
That blessed progress "in the Holy Land." 
The busy world awhile has stept aside, 
Faith seems exalted, and depressed my pride. 
Desires flame up, like Him, in grace to shine; 
"Where he has placed his footprint I would mine. 
I would be holy, harmless, undefiled; 
Like Him, the perfect Man, like Him, the spotless 

Child. 



A PSALM OF REMEMBRANCE. 175 



A PSALM OP REMEMBRANCE. 



Child! remember thy Creator, 

While thy thought is young and new; 

Yield thy odor, morning blossom ! 
While 't is fragrant with the dew. 

Ever blest the early offering, 

Years are doubtful, Childhood true. 

Youth ! remember thy Creator, 
Ere shall come the evil day, 

When thy dreamy joys forever 

Will, like dreams, have past away, 
" And in them I have no pleasure," 
Worn and weary, thou shalt say. 



176 A PSALM OF REMEMBRANCE. 

Man ! remember thy Creator, 
Now in this thy vigorous time ; 

Give thy strength to thy Redeemer, 
Ere in weakness sinks thy prime; 

Ere thy sun, below meridian, 
Journeys to another clime. 

Age ! remember thy Creator, — 

Spring and Summer, Autumn, fled — 

Lo, the locks of grisly Winter, 
Streaming tokens o'er thy head, 

Speak to thee in silent message, 
Wailing, warning of the dead. 

Beauty! think of thy Creator; 

Witching as thy charms may be, 
They are fleeting ; — there 's a reptile 

Waiting in the grave for thee. 
Think of Him who gives the beauty 

Blooming for eternity. 

Wealth! think thou of thy Creator; 

Why should riches be a screen, 
Through which God, the willing Giver, 

By the ingrate is not seen ? 



A PSALM OF REMEMBRANCE. 177 

Think of Him, before whose treasures, 
Worlds on worlds uppiled are mean. 

Penury ! think of thy Creator ; 

None more reason has than thou ; 
If the wanton world is frowning, 

If thou must unaided bow, 
Think of Friendship that 's unfailing ; 

Think of Help that 's ready now. 

Debtor ! in a Christian prison, 

Felon! to the scaffold doomed, 
Weary wanderer ! vile transgressor ! 

In sin's sepulchre entombed — 
Hopeless drunkard ! soul in darkness ! 

Mind! by heavenly light illumed, 

Freeman ! boasting of the purchase 

By thy noble fathers made, — 
Wretched slave ! the freeman's chattel, 

Soul and sinews formed for trade — 
Thou ! who hast from virtue wandered, 

Thou ! whose footsteps never strayed : 

Sailor! on the treacherous ocean, 
Watching wind or boding clouds, 



178 A PSALM OF REMEMBRANCE. 

0, remember thy Creator's 

Voice is piping in the shrouds. 

Fainting pilgrim in the desert ? 
Solitary, or in crowds — 

Worldling! Christian! Doubtful! Thoughtful! 

Man of hope and man of none — ■ 
Careless, Fearful, Timid, Daring — 

Thou of friends, and thou alone — 
Gathered out of Egypt's darkness ; 

Thou, whose star has ever shone ; 

Tanght from being's dawn how only 
Thou mayst truly, safely walk ; 

Left, from birth, to struggle sorely 
With the clogs that spirit balk; 

Never taught of thy Creator; 

Taught Him by thy mother's talk; 

Household ! Hamlet ! Country ! City ! 

Honor, Intellect, and Sex ; 
Kingdom ! Dukedom ! Province ! Empire ! 

Crowned, or crushed, whom cares perplex; 
Patient, Restless, Joyous, Mourner, 

Whom life's weary sorrows vex; 



A PSALM OF REMEMBRANCE. 179 

Citizen ! or Stranger ! Moslem ! 

Sultan ! brother of the sun ; 
Arab ! Jew, or Gentile — humble 

Thee before the Mighty One ! 
Japanese, and China man ! 

Greenlander, and Thug, undone ! 

Thou, with lease of life before thee, 
As thou fondly deem'st, and thou, 

Faltering in the final struggle, — 
Death's cold signet on thy brow ; 

Sickly ! Healthy ! Living ! Dying ! 
On the mount, or in the slough. 

Earth ! remember thy Creator ; 

Systems ! as ye haste along ; 
Hell ! that moveless is forever ; — 

Yea, thy fires to him belong — 
Him, in dreadful wail, remember ! 

Heaven ! remember Him in song. 

Thou that writest ! Thou that readest ! 

Idler! Toiler! Quick! or Slow! 
Thou that preachest! thou that nearest! 



180 HARRIET NEWELL. 

This, the only lesson know : 
Now, remembering thy Creator, 
Shun the lost, forgetfuVs woe ! 



HARRIET NEWELL. 



Stranger ! that in this Isle-of-France dost tarry, 
Seek out our Harriet's solitary grave, 

Marked by the evergreen; so mayst thou carry 
Hence, wholesome thought, returning o'er the wave. 

For this is she whose death hath given sweet life 

To thousands. Yea, whose pangg of mortal strife 
Have yielded to the pagan precious bliss. 

This island is her monument ; — it doth belong 
To Christendom. Lo, every one in this 
Loved soil hath portion, who in Christ hath part. 

Though dear to early romance, by the song 
Of simple Indian loves, told to the heart 

In charming story- — not thy power, St. Pierre,* 

Endeared it, as her patient griefs and death endear. 

* Bernardine St. Pierre, the scene of whose " Paul and Vir- 
ginia " is laid in the Isle-of-France. 



LAZARUS. 



181 



LAZARUS. 



Bethany! on thy site, as travellers tell, 
Rude and forlorn, the warlike Arabs dwell: 
Children of penury, slaves of miscalled fate, 
" One God, their God, and Allah theirs, as great." 
Who that surveys thy miserable slate, 
Silent and dreary, could suppose that thou, 
Ruined and vile, despised, forgotten, now, 
Wast honored, once, with presence of the Blessed, 
Salvation's Prince — the world's neglected Guest? 
Who could suppose, where solitude is wed 
To death, that life came springing from the dead — 
When on the grave was light of victory cast, 
And he restored, who had its portals past? 
And who would deem domestic bliss, so dear 
To God, earth's choicest flower, was cultured here ? 
16 



182 LAZARUS. 



Bethany ! name that eighteen hundred years 
Has tribute called of sweet, delicious tears — 
Bethany ! name at which glad visions come 
Of friendship, love, and sacred charms of home — 
With thee, how surely rise to fancy's view, 
Martha and Mary, and their brother, too ! 
Lazarus, of these the brother, much beloved,— 
And more — disciple, Jesus well approved ; 
Martha, with serving cumbered for her Lord ; 
Mary, that meekly sat to hear His word. 
Blest household! simple, poor, yet free from sin, 
And rich beyond compare, with Christ within. 

Lazarus, diseased, has sought the couch of pain ; 
The sisters ask for Jesus — but in vain. 
To do his work, on Jordan's farther side 
Is He whose presence could this sickness chide. 
Fraternal care wings thither strong appeal- — 
" He whom thou lovest is sick : Lord, come and 

heal!" 
He comes not. Surely he will message send 
That shall rebuke disease, and save his friend. 
No — death must have its victim, so the hour 
Of man's extreme may show that God hath 

power. 



J 



LAZARUS. 183 



Lazarus is dead ! Is not the Saviour here ? 
Not to restore, but give the kindly tear: 
Oh, is He absent? absent ne'er before 
From low abodes, where Sorrow keeps the door. 
How many weary hours tliej 've looked for him, 
And hearts are faint, and heavy eyes are dim ! 
Come, mournful music ! soothe the weeper's breast, 
That pours out troubled song for him at rest. 

Brother ! thou wast our youth's delight, 

The pleasant stay of riper years ; 
Climbing with thee life's joyous height, 

What knew we of a vale of tears ? 
Thou wast the branch on which, in weakness, 

We, early tendrils, fondly hung ; 
Around thy glorious strength, in meekness, 

Our timid woman's love was flung. 

Brother ! a tie, whose mighty power 

Death breaks not, sweetly held us, three, — 
Not that we each, in life's first hour, 

Drank at one breast, and clasped one knee : 
Stronger than this — the silken cord 

That linked our souls in gentle love, 
The tie that bound us to our Lord 

So firm below, fails not above. 



184 LAZARUS. 



Brother ! the palm at morning towers 

Its stem by Jordan's peaceful stream, 
And shows its crown of leaves and flowers, 

Bathed in the burning noonday's beam: 
At eve, the sorrowing maidens see 

The bruised stem, the broken bough: 
Weeping — the sad beholders we, - — 

Prostrate in all thy beauty, thou! 

The Master's come! — Him Martha hastes to 
meet, 
And falls in tears of anguish at his feet. 
Why was her earnest, pious suit denied? 
" Hadst thou been here, my brother had not died ; 
Yet even now, such is thy power with God, 
He can return, who hath death's valley trod — 
He shall arise in Resurrection's day." 
"I am" saith Christ, "the Resurrection, yea, 
He that in me believeth, were he dead, 
Yet shall he live, Belie vest thou what I Ve said ? " 

He stands beside the grave; He, the grave's 
King, 
Spoiler of hell, can spoil Death's lesser sting. 
Yet Jesus wept; — what rich compassions flow 
From that deep fountain sorrow breaks up so ! — 



RETROSPECTIVE. 185 



The stone removed — to Him, by whom is won 
Vietory alone, in praises speaks the Son, — 
That God, the Father, making known His power, 
Will raise Sin's numerous slain to life this hour: 
Then, in a voice at which Death, trembling, fled, 
" Lazarus ! come forth ! " he cries. He that was 

dead 
Came forth, in grave-clothes clad, and, buoyant, 

trod 
The green earth : telling " Christ is very God ! " 



RETROSPECTIVE. 



How many, that a few months since 
Sat with us by our Christmas fire, 

Have left Earth's low inheritance, 

And at God's bidding gone up higher ! 

How many, we were wont to deem 
Would in gray hairs our solace be, 

Have left these precincts, where men dream, 
To test the great reality ! 
16* 



186 RETROSPECTIVE. 



A child, that kissed away our care, 

Whose smiles strewed life with some sweet 
flowers, 

Has left our bosom's love, to share 
The love of hyacinthine bowers ! 

A friend — but Retrospection ! stop — - 
Nor stir the founts of hidden grief; 

Yet Him, I bless who, for each drop 
Of anguish, has a kind relief, — 

And for each mortal hurt, a cure, 
That penetrates the heart within ; 

The Medicine of Mercy sure 

And safe for sickness wrought by sin. 

E-eligion — - be its treasures mine ! 

With this, I am creation's heir; 
With this, a worm with God shall shine; 

Without it, what remains ? — Despair ! 



DECEMBER. 187 



DECEMBER. 



Farewell, December ! cheerless as thou art, 

Arrayed in gloom, thou hast for me no smile ; 
Thou canst not whisper pleasure to this heart, 

Thy aspect cannot life's sad ills beguile. 
O'er thee, the sombre child of Winter stern, 

Nature is weeping in funereal gloom ; 
Cheerless the trophies that adorn thy urn ; 

Cold are the rites that consecrate thy tomb. 

Farewell, December ! and with thee the year, — 
Another year, that ends its course with thee ; 

Another year that 's severed from my span, 
Lost in embraces of Eternity. 



188 DECEMBER. 



What hopes and fears, what schemes of future bliss 
Have sparkled on the past with fairy beam! 

Futile those schemes, and false each hope, for this 
Brief life is but the shadow of a dream. 

Farewell, December ! — Ere in frowns again 

Thou reign'st, the empress of the howling storm, 
Perhaps this bosom, free from secret pain, 

May rest in quiet ; — this unconscious form 
May pillow kindly on its lowly bed, 

And know of grief no more. — It will be sweet, 
When gently called by an approving God, 

On yonder peaceful shore to rest the weary feet. 



WMTEFIELD. 



ON SEEING HIS REMAINS IN THEIR RESTING-PLACE AT NEWBURYPORT, MAS8. 
SEPT. 11, 1837. 



And this was Whitefield ! — this, the dust now 
blending 

With kindred dust, that wrapt his soul of fire, — 
Which, from the mantle freed, is still ascending 

Through regions of far glory, holier, higher. 

Oh, as I gaze here with a solemn joy 

And awful reverence, in which shares Decay, 

Who, this fair frame reluctant to destroy, 
Yields it not yet to doom that all obey, — 

How follows thought his flight, at Love's command, 
From hemispheres in sin to hemispheres, 
Warning uncounted multitudes with tears, — 



190 THE BIBLE. 



Preaching the risen Christ on sea and land,— 
And now, those angel journeyings above ! 
Souls, his companions, saved by such unwearied 
love ! 



THE BIBLE. 



O Book! that bright and burning Day, 

To which all other days are dim,— 
With those who kneel in white array, 

Cherub and saint and seraphim, 
With those who testify for truth, 

Battlers for God with rebel sin, 
Shining in their immortal youth, 

All light without and light within — 
That Day shalt thou, a witness stand, 
Awful and swift, at Christ's right hand. 

Against the hours of gross neglect 
Suffered o'er thee to idly pass, 

When thou wast cheated of respect 
Given freely to the mirroring glass. — 



THE BIBLE. 191 



When Fashion sought thee not with half 
The earnest zeal and love it gave 

The revel; when the trifling laugh 

Could Conseienee nerve, thy threats to 
brave ; 

And Beauty said thy page of gloom 

Produced no flower of pleasant bloom, 

Ah! heard she not thy sacred voice, 

When from the closet's corner thou 
Bad'st her in folly's dream rejoice, 

And bathe in every pleasure now, 
As one not to reflection woke ; 

Yet bade her, too, remember well, 
That taking thus sin's willing yoke 

On earth, 't would gird her neck in hell ; 
"And God to judgment all would bring," 
Thou saidst: "for every secret thing?" 

Him, too, engaged in hoarding pelf, 

Whose thoughts on schemes of grasping ran, 

Thou, from thy silent, dusty shelf 
Didst often warn, " Remember, man ! 

Bethink thee of thy narrow bed, 
Curtained alone with sullen night ; 



192 THE BIBLE. 



Where thou must quickly lay thy head, — 

Then whom shall this, thy wealth, delight ? " 
He answered not, but hated thee 
The more for thy fidelity. 

A father's holy counsel given, 

A mother's often bended knee, 
Both now before the throne of heaven — 

That he should love and ponder thee, 
Forgotten — in his dreadful hour 

Where for consoling shall he look? 
Tremendous is thy wakened power, 

Eternal, wondrous, hated Book. 
Would that the sons of men were wise 
To seek the treasure of the skies! 



THE DEAF AND DUMB. 



THE DEAF AND DUMB. 



SET TO MUSIC BY A. P. HEINRICH. 



Ye cultivated minds, that know 
Of intellectual bliss the sum — 

Ye hearts, that with sweet pity glow, 
Regard the hapless Deaf and Dumb! 

On them the storms have rudely blown, 
They wither on the breast of even ; 

Receive the flowerets to your own, 

Their fragrance will ascend to heaven. 

In knowledge let them freely share, 

From the waste mind let darkness flee 

Bid the bright day-beam kindle there 

The lamp of Immortality. 
17 



Though soothing blandishment ne'er cheers 
Their solitude, nor utterance kind,— 

Yet mutual sympathy is theirs, 

The language of the kindred mind. 

And this shall bless you, and the tear 
Nature's pure accent — will reveal 

Emotions, undefined, yet dear, 

The tribute which the heart can feel. 

Yes ! the unuttered, earnest prayer 
Of Innocence shall rise, while some 

Winged messenger to God will bear 
The offering of the Deaf and Dumb. 



STRANGE THINGS. 195 



STRANGE THINGS. 



'T is strange that I should plant or build, 
Or schemes of busy pleasure plan ; 

So simple and so all unskilled 
In what concerns my span ; 

Uncertain whether my next breath 

May not be lost in death. 

'T is strange that I so lightly go 

Where slumber doth the senses steep ; — 

What if, all unaware, the foe 
Steal on my sleep ? 

And from soft rest and visions bland 

I journey to the spirit-land ? 



196 STRANGE THINGS. 



'Tis strange that in the crowded mart 
I do not Death, the toiler, see ; 

None busier in his proper part, 
More faithful none, than he. 

Out of these thousands, what if I 

Am bid to shut up shop and die? 

5 T is strange that at the bed of pain, 
Where some poor sufferer sinks away- 

And soul, soon to be free again, 
Peeps from its cage of clay — 

I stand, nor timely lesson learn, 

That I must go, and not return. 

5 T is strange that when my precious one 
Unfolded silver wings and fled, 

I only deemed my little son 
Was with the early dead — 

Nor looked where sinless infants bow, 

Nor knew he was an angel now. 

J T is strange, where grasses thickly w r ave 
Above the churchyard's narrow beds, 

As thoughtfully I scan each grave, 
And envy those unaching heads, 



PRESBYTERIAN. 197 



Hope flies not to a happier shore, 
Where I shall grieve and sin no more. 

'T is strange that mortals act awhile 
Such meagre parts in every age, 

And strut their hour, and weep and smile. 
And wearied, quit the stage, — 

And still the drama hurries on ; 

O God, what prize is lost and won ! 



PRESBYTERIAN 



" THE WORD PRESBYTERIAN ANAGRAMATIZED, IS BEST IN PRATER." 

Not so! — in unambitious day 

Of her first love, be thus, it might, — 

Not now she cares who best can Pray, 
But who is best approved in Fight, 

Of Paul are some, Apollos others, — 
And so the world would have it be ; 

Which quotes no more their love as brothers, 

But " how these Christians disagree ! " 
17* 



198 JOHN ELIOT. 



Weep ! that her elders faint in prayer ; 

Weep ! that her young men turn to sin ; 
Weep ! that her arm is palsied, where 

She conquered once, and still should win. 
Weep ! that her lamp so dimly burns, 

And by her influence, loathing light, 
That Mercy's cloud of brilliance turns 

On the whole Church its edge of night. 

1838. 



JOHN ELIOT, OF ROXBBRY 

Obit. 1690. 



" Such priest as Chaucer sang in fervent lays, 
Such as the heaven-taught skill of Herbert drew." 

There are, who, leaving house and lands and home, 
Take up the exile's lot, and far hence go 
Unto the Gentiles, winning them from woe ; 
And sweetly teaching such as wildly roam, 
Steadfast to be in Christ. Their temple dome 
None other than what woods and skies bestow. 
Foremost of these, Apostle ! thee we know ; — 



WHAT SHALL WE HAVE? 199 

And when at judgment to award do come 
The self-denying servants of tlie King, 

Thou, faithful with the faithful, wilt be seen, 
And for thy jewels wilt, triumphant, bring — 

To which the starry gems of heaven are mean — 
The Indian, by the Spirit rendered free, 
Through Truth translated, taught, and lived by 
thee. 



WHAT SHALL WE HAVE? 



Then Peter said to Jesus, " All we Ve left, 

And followed Thee — O, might we follow faster — 

Thy love makes rich ; yet Love hath us bereft ; 
What shall we have, in recompense, our Master ? " 

" Left all," forsooth ! yes, baits, and hooks, and lines, 
And bobs, and tangled nets, and crazy wherry ; 

And delving nights and days in watery mines 
For silver pieces ; — modest, Peter, very ! 



" And followed thee." Ah, thriftless, thankless task, 
To go with One who leads the worlds of beauty! 

Yet did men know Him, they, methinks, would ask, 
Yes, beg and plead to be allowed such duty. 

" What shall we have ? — we track a path of fears ; 

And scorn and scoffing are our crown of glory ; 
The Master tells of bonds and stripes and tears ; — 

The Garden and the Cross shall end the story." 

And so in Palestine, they creep and talk; 

Selfish to-day, and cowards on the morrow ; 
Most lively counterparts of us who walk 

With Jesus less in confidence than sorrow. 

Poor, blinded wanderers ! who can only see 

A needy Nazarene — ye with Him have treasure, 

Which but to count exhausts eternity; 

The dust ye tread is gold that mocks at measure. 

The tears ye drop for His dear sake are gems; — 
Your rags of poverty are Victory's banners ; = — 

Your path of blood is strewn with diadems ; - — 
Those scoffs and scorns are music of Hosannas ! 



REV. PAUL COUCH, OF NEWBURYPORT 



RELEASED AFTER THIRTY YEARS SICKNESS. 



Tpie man,* whose affliction his fellow had been, 

More constant than friendship the world ever saw, 
Waited long, till the Saviour commanded, and then 

Infirmity heard and respected the law ; 
More blest — thou for Heaven didst patiently wait 

Command from thy Maker, whose will was thy 
choice ; 
Determined, though kept by that will at the gate, 

To share with those entered in Gratitude's voice. 

Thou wast early engaged in His service ; thy sword 
Was glittering; thy helmet and breastplate were 
on ; 

* John v : 5. 



The weapon of All Prayer thou tookest, the Word 

And Spirit, by whom is the victory won ; — 
But a less dazzling field, though as lofty, was 
thine ; 
Thou wast called from war's brightness and glory 
and din, 
To show how in darkness the Christian may shine, 
How in quiet the soldier of Jesus may win. 

Thy sky was not all overclouded with fears, — - 

For there was the rainbow of morning and even ; 
Thy cup, to the brim, was not wholly of tears, — 

A pearl to dissolve in 't was graciously given ; 
Thou hadst friends, such as render calamity dear, 

When kindness the worth of true friendship 
reveals ; 
A sister to help thee, console thee, and cheer, 

With love which a sister in Christ only feels. 

There are those who may actively serve, and they 

go 
On wheels of the lightning, their chariot the 

flame; 
There are those who serve willingly, waiting, they 

know 



REV. PAUL COUCH. 203 

Their passive obedience is counted the same ; 
But to thee, more exalted, was given the lot 

The will of thy Master in weakness to bear ; 
That the preacher a God whom the prosperous 
knew not, 

In suffering might serve and in patience declare. 

When JEtna, its anger doth speak out in flame, 

And thunders, volcanic, a city appall, 
The slave of the Papacy calls on a name, 

The guilty are troubled, yet cling to their thrall ; 
But the more the rebukings of God met thine ear, 

Thou, freed from the terror, didst love Him the 
more ; 
And what in the vile only kindles up fear, 

Led thee, in thy holiness, Him to adore. 

In his garden of saints, when the Keeper doth 
walk, 
And call for his north wind and south wind to 
blow, 
Reviving the blossom and strengthening the stalk, 

And causing, abundantly, spices to flow, — 
He may prune, He may break, He may crush, if 
He please, 



Such discipline only doth quicken their bloom ; — 
Though the strokes of His love may be heavy, He 
sees 
The bruised and the broken yield sweetest 
perfume. 



THE MOTHER. 



A Mother's love — how great that love! 

Nor crime nor folly makes it less ; 
The world may scorn, and God may frown; 

She only knows her child to bless. 

A Mother's care — how great that care ! 

Increasing with the flight of years ; 
Watchful in youth ; in riper age 

Still following with its prayers and tears. 

God, thou this burden laid'st ; — O God, 
Thou only know'st its depth of woe 

Or gladness. Shall she, all alone, 
Bear it unhelped, unnoticed ? NO ! 



TAKE WINGS ! 205 



TAIE WINGS! 



Take wings ! take wings ! and seek the lost. 
The lost, guilt's weary, willing slave ; 

Where lies he, helpless, hopeless, tost, 
A wreck upon the whelming wave ; 

And seem to his despair the dove, 

Whose symbol types relief and love. 

Take wings, and seek the dreaming dead, 
The dead, o'er whom night holds misrule ; 

And, dipt in heaven, around him shed 
The splendors of the Sunday-school; 

Whose glories, woven on the throne, 

Have burst, and streamed, and downward shone, 
18 



206 TAKE WINGS ! 



Take wings, and fresh memorials bear 
Of by-gone men, whose feet were shod 

With truth ; whose spear and shield was prayer, 
Who fought and journeyed up to God ; 

And shrine, with more than victor's fame, 
The martyr missionary's name. 

Yet speedier, loftier, soar again, 
And fling abroad thy living light ; 

And flood the flowering prairie's plain, 
And gild the wooded mountain's height ; 

Till rich redemption's glory shines 
On western wilds and eastern pines. 

Till, from the unforbidden tree 

Of knowledge, drops delicious fruit; 

Where'er the curse hath had decree, 
Wherever roams the destitute ; 

On isles, that ocean's bosom gem, 

On continents, that fringe its hem. 

Take wings, take wings, a Voice ! it comes 
From wanderers that once were blest 

With fair New England's Sabbath homes, 
A voice of pleading from the West ! 



TAKE WINGS ! 



207 



Respond, herald, to that cry, 
With tidings of deliverance nigh. 

Tidings ! — the feet of steadfast men 
Are standing, in their beauty now, 

On field and plain and smiling glen, 
And the rejoicing mountain's brow. 

Already have savannas rung 

With music of the lisper's tongue. 

Already, where their mossy nests 

The small birds build on branching limb, 

Abroad, to listening solitudes, 

Flows sweetly now the children's hymn ; 

They lift to God accepted strain, 
And give to Christ a new domain. 



The forest top's deep canopy, 

That shadowed, long, the wild beast's den, 
And gave tall eyry to the fowl, 

Unknown to step of stranger men, — 
Now widely flings its roof of green, 
Where prayer and anthem rise between. 

Tidings ! Messiah here hath spoil, — 
Yet ampler, richer, shall be won; 



208 WHICH ? 



For these unfainting sons of toil 

Have but one watchword, and 't is, On ! 
Till this broad land shall cultured be 

From Alleghany to the Sea. 

Valley of the Mississippi, 1830. 



WHICH? 



The sinner says : " Let Evil rule ; " 

Nor doth his heart rebel 
To see the Devil's purpose done 

On earth, as done in hell. 

The Christian prays : " Let God prevail ; 

To Him be honor given ; 
And be His perfect will obeyed 

On earth, as 'tis in Heaven." 

One of these prayers, O man, is thine; 

Thy body to the sod — 
Sink, Spirit! to thy downward choice, 

Or, upward, rise to God ! 



PORTENTS. 209 



PORTENTS. 



My God, do lips wake martial story, 

As they were wont, years past, to wake? 
Do long-forgotten songs of glory 

Upon the startled nations break ? 
Does the appealing drum redouble, 

In dreadful beat, its former call? 
And the sharp trumpet ring of trouble, 

Of cities sacked, of states that fall ? 

Has haughty Albion claimed dominion 
For her swollen sceptre, o'er the deeps ? 

And spreads our bird, permitted pinion, 
Where'er Saint George's banner sweeps ? 

Shall our brave tars be bid to tremble 
At her subaltern's lordly beck — 
18* 



210 PORTENTS. 



Her subjects once — now ours — dissemble 
And cower, when searchers tread the deck? 

Are our majestic ships in motion, 

All bristling with the front of war — 
Soon to speak out, on every ocean, 

Vengeance for violated law? 
Are our bright stars and stripes to nourish, 

All proudly, in the conflict's storm — 
The fighting freeman's hopes to nourish, 

Or wrap in r.est his mangled form ? 

Will Death his eager lackeys rally, 

Where ranks close up and. squadrons wheel ? 
And peaceful plain and happy valley 

Echo the clang of murderous steel ? 
Will stern alarums shake the city? 

Will conflagration climb these domes ? 
And feet of those that have no pity, 

Pollute our shrines, our halls, our homes ? 

Do vigorous men, who on our mountains 
Their harvests reap, disdain them now,- — 

And laurels ask, that, dipped in fountains 
Of purple, deck the hero's brow? 



Our generous youth — will they in clusters 
Forsake their hearths and quiet joy 

For fields and camps where Battle musters, 
And Ruin follows to destroy ? 

Our poets — are they idly singing 

Hosannas to the fiery god ? 
Our maidens — long they to be flinging 

Their roses o'er the men of blood ? 
Is madness our whole land possessing, 

To lavish thus her purchased boon, 
And deems she peace a worthless blessing, 

That she discards the gift so soon ? 

Our rulers — are they, faithless, straying 

From virtue's path to fatal vice, 
Ambition's game unwisely playing, 

Such millions staked upon the dice ! 
Ha ! all around is sad replying, — 

Portents of what is soon to be ; 
Arms gleam — flags wave — the groans of dying 

Survivors' shrieks, I hear and see. 

The Tree our noble fathers planted, 
Nods, leafless, branchless, to its fall; 



212 PORTENTS. 



The Liberty, their children vaunted, 
Fair Virgin ! lies beneath the pall ; — - 

Corruption saps the bond of union, 

While principles are bought and sold, — 

And perjured statesmen seek communion 
Not now with Right, but Power and Gold. 

My God, Thou dost permit Disorder, 

Foul bird — in Wisdom's halls to sail; 
And from our centre to our border 

Dost let Distraction thus prevail. 
Revoke the mandate that is given 

To Thy dread sword, now stretched o'er us, 
And, humbled at the throne of Heaven, 

We 11 bless the hand that stays the curse. 

Teach England, that her highest duty 

She owes to Honor's just decree ; 
And better far than fame or booty 

(These could she win) is fear of Thee. 
Teach us, our cause to Thee committing, 

To trust again Thy guiding hand ; 
Assured, no final ill permitting, 

Thou wilt forgive and save our land! 

1842. 



THE POET. 



THE POET. 



" Ah, the Poet's mystic measure 
Is a rich, but fatal treasure ; 
Bliss to others — to the master 
Full of bitter and disaster." 

From the Spanish of Zorrilla. 

Yet no true Poet would resign 

His much-loved lyre, 

Nor quench the fire 
Whose source is sacred and divine. 



If, with the roses on its string, 
Be woven thorns, 
He fondly scorns 

Aside the instrument to fling. 



Be sure, vain world, though in his cup 

Be bitter dregs, 

The boon he begs 
Is privilege to drink them up. 

For on its rim, so rude and rough, 

His lips do meet 

That honey-sweet, 
Which for his palate is enough. 

Ye after meagre pleasures strain ; 

His better bliss 

He oft may miss, 
Yet won, 't is dearer for the pain. 

Ye say he follows but a shade, 

That in a bright 

Dream of the night 
Glitters, and with the dawn doth fade. 

No ! no ! they 're bubbles ye pursue ; 

He grasps the prize 

Which to the eyes 
Of Reason, is the fair and true. 





THE POET. 


215 


Ye 


deem the master's " mystic measure 
Yields only woe. 


i> 




And only flow 


[ure. 


Dark streams, where wells his sparkling 


treas- 


No! 


no! while he the chord doth sweep, 




Others for bliss 






May smile ; 't is his 




For 


very ecstasy to weep. 




Ye 


deem his hidden riches mean, 
And he but dotes 
"Who o'er them gloats, 




By 


sordid sensual eyes unseen. 




No 


no ! if might his gift be sold, 
And his free heart 
Brought to the mart, 




God's universe has not the gold. 


__ _v 



216 QUEEN VICTORIA'S FANCY BALL. 



QUEEN VICTORIA'S FANCY DRESS BALI, 

AT BUCKINGHAM PALACE, MAY 12, 1842. 



Sit on thy throne, imperial Dame, 

True wearer of the British crown, 
And bid the thing that takes the name 

Of "consort-prince," with thee sit down. 
Now round ye both, may gather these, 

Who, to betray ye, herd with fools ; 
Knaves, with souls supple as their knees, — 

Your flatterers they, yourselves their tools, 

'Tis well they shine in jewels thus, 
And at soft music's measure tread 

Your ball-room, to the unmeasured curse 
That rains on every titled head. 



QUEEN VICTORIA'S FANCY BALL. 217 

Concealed in plumes and scarfs and gold, 
And sparkling with unvalued stones, 

They seem of more than mortal mould ; 
How can such heed a people's groans ? 

Or how can robes of velvet hide 

(Bestrown with gems and edged with pearls) 
Hearts throbbing with affection's tide ? 

Of heart what know these dukes and earls ? 
Or these brave mantles — can they screen 

Bosoms where pity hath a place ? 
Hence, pity ! feeling ! thoughts so mean 

Ne'er blanch an Honorable's face. 

Now let the dance begin ; — begin 

Your music, ye obsequious slaves ! 
Yet louder ! — your luxurious din 

Should drown the shriek at Famine's graves. 
Blaze brighter, jewels ! for there comes 

The darkness here of Beggary's hell ; 
Laugh louder, nobles ! " England's homes " 

Send even here their frantic yell. 

Haste to the banquet ; antique plate 
I3 heaped to-night with Eoyal cheer ; 
19 



218 QUEEN VICTORIA'S FANCY BALL. 

And England's chivalry in state 

To mock at England's wrongs, are here. 

Fill up the beaker ! generous wine 
At Labor's cost, shall flow, as ye 

Drink deeply to the " Right Divine " 
Of kings, and death to Liberty. 

? T is true, your tankard, vase, and cup. 

And plate that glows with burnished red, 
Whence England's proudest, meanest, sup, 

While England's noblest faint for bread, 
Outvie the Babylonian's feast 

In pride and luxury's impious show ; — 
Tremble, ye tyrants ! yours at least 

Belshazzar's folly ; yours his woe ! 



HYMN FOR THE MILLENNIUM. 219 



HYMN FOR THE MILLENNIUM. 



God, to Thee, from whom so long 

This darkened world has strayed, inglorious, 

She comes, in brightness and in song, 

With crowns and harps for Thee, victorious. 

From where flames up the morning sun, 

To where he floods the west with beauty, — 

From north to south, not one, not one 
Is silent in this hour of duty. 

Hear! as on Afric's noble plains 

Her Sunday schools lisp songs, that gladly 
Go up, where once were stripes and chains, 

And fraud and gold that triumphed madly. 



220 HYMN FOR THE MILLENNIUM. 

Hear China's worship-wooing bells ! 

" Celestial " now — whose happy nation, 
By her delivered millions, tells 

That her proud wall is called " Salvation." 

And see ! the lovely isles that gem 
Old ocean's bosom, fair and vernal, 

Are jewels in the diadem 

That glory wreaths for the Eternal. 

The tree of life yields glad perfume, 

With fresh buds crowned, and choicest flowers ; 

Knowledge displays its living bloom, 

Where grace dispenses warmth and showers. 

Dove of the Lord! Peace, brooding, sits 
Where fiercely flew the bird of glory; 

And Waterloo and Austerlitz 
Live only in ignoble story. 

And, quenched the latent spark of rage, 
Hate adds no more to party fuel ; 

And realms are ruled, though statesmen wage 
No war of words, nor war with duel. 



HYMN FOR THE MILLENNIUM. 221 

And where so long the dreadful whip 

Of slavery scourged the flesh, red reeking, 

Are kindness, love, and manhood's lip, 
Of holy, heartfelt Freedom speaking. 

The Heavens, in gladness, shout to Thee, 
And Earth, in bondage lately lying, 

Rings back the cry, " We 're free ! we 're 
free ! " 
Her vales, rock3, hills, and seas replying. 

Earth ! Earth ! to Christ (his kingdom won), 
In more than primal beauty given — 

Sound the high hymn ! for now is done 
His will on earth, as done in heaven. 



19< 



HYMN, 

Sung by the Congregation of Pine Street Church, Boston, May 
14, 1848; prior to their late Pastor's, Rev. Austin Phelps, 
occupancy of the Chair of Bartlett Professor of Sacred Rhet- 
oric, at Andover Theological Institution. 



That thou wast loved, and still hast part 
In all that friendship holds most dear 3 

Bears witness every burdened heart,™ 
Bears witness each expressive tear. 

That from the well-spring of a mind, 
Whose mighty current mocks thy youth 

For wants belonging to our kind, 

Has ever flowed transparent Truth ; — 



HYMN. 223 



That thou didst hallow all our bliss, — 

And wreathe with Hope's sweet flowers the rod, 

And win to brighter worlds from this, — 
Is known to us and known to God! 

We hoped that thou, our shepherd, still 
Wouldst lead the inexperienced feet; 

And with our old men, down the hill, 

Go where in Death Life's waters meet. — 

Exemplar, here, like holy Paul, 

Unmoved by flattery or by frown, — 

'Till summoned at the Master's call 

To leave the cross and take the crown. 

'T is well — our last sad lesson thus 
We learn, beloved man, from thee: 

That streams of perfect joy for us 
Rise only in Eternity. 

Yet go, — for sacred Duty calls, 

Where thou, for Christ, mayst teachers teach, — 
And his vast empire, from those halls, 

By thousand-fold of influence reach ! 



224 THE FLAGSTAFF. 



THE FLAGSTAFF,* 



O Saviour ! Thou ! the Hope and Stay 
Of those on land that pilgrims be, - — 

O Omnipresent ! who alway 

Art with the Sailor far at sea, — 

Round us j in mercy, fold thy power; 

Shield him in Peril's awful hour. 

* These verses, being a response to a request from an esteemed 
friend, I have supposed would be more acceptable if the circum- 
stances which elicited them were known. The following letter 
is accordingly subjoined. 

Nantucket, July 6th, 1842. 
Rev. Wm. B. Tappan: 

Dear Sir — There are in my church and congregation many 
females whose husbands spend most of their time at sea. From 
the " Lookout " upon our houses we see a noble ship leave our 
bar and disappear in the distant horizon, knowing that from three 
to four years must elapse ere that ship can return from its long 



THE FLAGSTAFF. 225 



While on the pinions of the morn 
He flies to North or Southern zone, 

Cleaves Indian seas, or, round the Horn, 
Seeks latitudes and lands unknown, — 

Let him, beneath thy present eye, 

Feel that he cannot from Thee fly. 

and arduous voyage. It must pass through the burning heat of 
the tropics, encounter the storms and icebergs of " The Cape," 
cruise among the coral reefs of the Pacific, and its officers and 
crew must attack, in fearful conflict, those leviathans of the deep, 
who, by one sweep of the tail, can toss a boat with its whole crew 
fifteen or twenty feet into the air. It is upon such enterprizes 
that many wives and mothers in my parish see their husbands 
depart. It not unfrequently happens, that eighteen months pass 
while not one word is heard from the absent husband and father, 
who is facing those dangers in the distant solitudes of the ocean. 
As soon as from our telegraphic station a Cape Horn ship is dimly 
distinguished in the horizon, the banner of the United States 
streams from our Flagstaff, announcing the fact to the inhabi- 
tants of the town. You may imagine the emotions which that 
sight must send to many dwellings. Some, whose husbands have 
been absent from three to four years, hope that it is the signal of 
their return. Others, who have heard no tidings from the absent 
for many months, hope for intelligence, and know not whether 
they are to hear tidings of prosperity or woe. Soon, by tele- 
graphic signal, the name of the ship is announced. And then the 
wife, who has been praying for her absent partner for weary 
years, and has heard no tidings from him for many months, waits 
in anxious suspense, hour after hour, uncertain whether she is 
again to see the face, and hear the voice of her beloved com- 
panion, or to receive the intelligence that she is a widow, and her 
children orphans. The outer door opens. The footsteps of a 
man are heard in the entry. Is it her husband, or some one to 



226 



THE FLAGSTAFF. 



And feel that he is safe whom Thou 
Dost cover with protecting shield; 

We feel it, know it, and we bow 
In faith, where we in hope have kneeled, 

And to our Father tell our fear; 

Our Father! Thou! thy children hear. 

We 've looked, from the horizon's dip, 
To see the slender mast ascend, 

Till — spars and sails — - our gallant ship 
Was all revealed, a blessed friend ! 



announce to her that her husband is dead — perhaps, that he found 
a grave in the ocean, or on a heathen shore, more than a year 
ago? 

I could fill many sheets with incidents of the most affecting 
nature, which have occurred since I have been upon this island. 
At our monthly concert of prayer for seamen, which is regularly 
observed, we not unfrequently have six hundred persons present 
— our large lecture-room crowded to overflowing. I have occa- 
sionally invited those ladies of our congregation whose husbands 
follow the seas, to meet at my house for a social religious inter- 
view. At our last meeting there were seventy present. 

My object in making this statement is to solicit of you the favor 
to furnish us with a few verses to sing at one of these meetings. 
I turn over the various hymn books in vain for any thing which 
meets the occasion. If you can find time to express a few of 
your thoughts and emotions upon this subject, in verse, you will 
contribute to the enjoyment of those who need sympathy, and 
greatly oblige your very sincere friend and brother in the Gospel. 

John S. C. Abbott. 



THE FLAGSTAFF. 227 

We Ve watched at early coming clay ; 
We 've watched at twilight's fading ray. 

And many a longing eye lias sought 

The signal on our sentry staff, 
And listening ears have almost caught, 

Across the waves, the joyous laugh 
That to oblivion gives his pain, 
Who sees his native shores again. 

Thy will be done! — though here we meet 
In doubt and tears and broken prayer, 

And lay before the Mercy-seat 

Our sighs and sadness, hope and care. 

O Thou, who round us foldest power, 

Shield him in Peril's awful hour ! 



228 VERSES. 



VERSES 



Occasioned by the imprisonment of Rev. G. C, at the suit 
of a Rum-distilling Deacon, for writing against Intemperance. 

A fact of the Nineteenth Century. 



They Ve thrust him to the inner cell, 

And planted bolt and bar 
On him thus basely made to dwell 

Where thieves and drunkards are. 
And those that quailed beneath his eye, 

And at his word did cower, 
Have left the greatness there to lie, 

Which shamed their petty power. 

The jail receives him, whose behest 
It is, with tongue of flame 



VERSES. 229 



To urge repentance, and attest 
The charms of Jesus' Name. 

The jail receives him, who should teach, 

> 

In voice of winning love, 
The sunken how to rise and reach 
The paradise above. 

The meek disciple who at times 

Takes of the Saviour's cup — 
And then the chalice, drugged with crimes, 

Compels men to drink up, — 
Yes, he whose hateful, poisonous trade, 

Has by the help of hell, 
A thousand thousand paupers made, 

In cedar halls doth dwell. 

Ay, bring him out ! — the Christian now — 

Of all that 's manly shorn, — 
That deeply on his guilty brow, 

The world may write its scorn, — 
And mark with infamy, the soul 

That 's monument alone 
Of meanness, lasting as the scroll 

Of brass, or senseless stone. 



20 



230 TEMPERANCE JUBILEE HYMN. 

If e'er was one whose deeds on earth, 

Are food for fiendish wit, — 
Whose deeper baseness stirs the mirth 

And loathing of the pit, — 
The Judas that makes haste to fill 

His bag by misery, 
And fasts and prays and drives the Still, 

That hypocrite is he ! 

1835. 



TEMPERANCE JUBILEE HYMN 

SUNG AT THE TREMONT TEMPLE, BOSTON, JULY 4, 1843. 



What boots it that yon green hill-side 

Drank in the streams of human gore, 
When fell, like grass, the British pride, 

Our fathers' sturdy front before, 
If to a demon, all they won 

Posterity surrenders up, 
And, for the chains of Albion, 

Assumes the fetters of the cup? 



TEMFERANCE JUBILEE HYMN. 231 

While Freedom calls her millions out, 

And stirs her trumpet from its sleep, 
And round her rallies song and shout, 

Her sacred festival to keep ; 
While Commerce halts its endless wheel, 

And Politics have leave to play, 
And Labor quits the ringing steel, 

Resolved for sober holyday, — 

Shall not the Jubilee be kept, 

Of Liberty, restored again 
To fathers, brothers, sons, who wept 

Beneath a worse than regal chain ? 
Shall not Te Deums rise to God, — 

Who snapt and crushed its hateful links, 
And deep in dust the tyrant trod — 

From every soul that feels and thinks ? 

Our Declaration? — 'tis the Pledge; 

Our Sword's good work ? — the. silent Still ; 
The foe, in "Ardents," felt its edge, 

But found " Tee-total " Bunker Hill ! 
Our Monument! God, it soars 

Above all granite shafts or domes ; 
Eternal token on our shores, 

Of countless happy hearts and homes ! 



TO G. 



AN ADVOCATE FOR TEMPERANCE, WHO, BY CONSPIRACY, WAS DECEIVED 
INTO A TEMPORARY RELAPSE. 



Victim of malice- — not of lust — 
On holy Truth yet seen to stand, — 

Thou hast, my friend, as at the first, 

With my whole heart, my warm right hand. 

Not less a dreadful champion thou, 

That spiteful serpents bruised thy heel; 

The head and heart are fitter now, — 
With surer lance and truer steel. 

Let not remorse, that comes to all 
Who sin, afflict thy gentle soul; 

Nor thus for an imagined fall, 
Let drops of mighty anguish roll. 



Thou hast not sinned ! but wicked hands 
Incarnadined with blood they Ve spilt, 

Which all the seas that wash all lands 

Can never cleanse — have wrought the guilt. 

And Heaven, who this sore trial sent, 
Thy sterling worth will well assure ; 

And Christ, who o'er the furnace bent 
Refining, sees the silver pure. 

Thou ledd'st the host, thou ledd'st the van, — 
Then blazed the eternal regis there ! — 

For sacred Truth, for Woman, Man, 

For God — till round thee closed the snare. 

Hell revels ! yet thou leap'st from earth, 
With wrathful brow and flashing eyes ; 

What storms of blows that change its mirth 
To shameful tears and coward cries ! 

Again, by thee, in glory's field, 

Truth's awful standard is unfurled; 

The tongue, that like a trumpet pealed, 

Again with clangor shakes the world. 
1845. 

20* 




SLIPS 



" It is a hard matter," said Prudence, " for a man to go down 
into the Valley of Humiliation, and to catch no slip by the way.' 5 
So he began to go down, but very warily ; yet he caught a slip 
or two. — The Pilgrim 1 s Progress. 

They say 't is dangerous to ascend 

The giddy steps of wealth or fame ; — 

Yet him I count a chosen friend, 

Who, harmless, leads me down the same. 



For, turning from those shining heights, 
We 're apt to halt upon the thigh ; 

And grieve to see our fair delights 
For ever from the landscape fly. 



slips. 235 

Unreconciled our stubborn pride, 
Rebellious with the heart and lip, 

There 's danger down the slippery side 
That our weak footsteps catch a slip. 

To sense, 't is difficult, I own, 

Some unexpected good to meet — 

To sit, unmoved, in Fortune's throne, 
And walk on gold with steady feet. 

More difficult, I deem his ways 

Whom Trial sternly bids come down ; 

I praise the first; him most I praise, 
Who, honestly, abides its frown. 



236 



ASPIRATIONS IN THE PULPIT. 



ASPIRATIONS IN THE PULPIT. 



The 
Invocation. 



O Jesus, while implores 

Our Invocation grace, 
Come ! for 't is Christ within the doors 

That makes the holy place. 



O Jesus, while I Read, 

Reading the Each to th J W ° rd incline 5 

Scriptures. And bid the rays that upward lead, 
Flash down on every line. 



Singing. 



O Jesus, show the Choir 

How soul and song may chord, - 
That they, attempting David's lyre, 

May truly praise the Lord. 



ASPIRATIONS IN THE PULPIT. 



237 



O Jesus to thy feet 

We, stained with guilt, repair; 

Prayer. 

But blood has bathed the Mercy Seat, 
And thou wilt hear our Prayer. 



The 
Sermon. 



Jesus, while I Preach, 
With tears, a soul to gain, 

Thou, who art only Wisdom, teach, 
Or all the work is vain. 



Prayer. 



Jesus, hear us Pray 

For grace that sweetly wins ; 
And that Thy blood will wash away 

Our sanctuary sins. 



Benediction. 



Jesus, as we part, 

Communion's seal impress ; 
And shadow every humble heart 

A Trinity, to Bless. 



238 TRUE SCIENCE, 



TRUE SCIENCE. 



Could I name every curious root, 

And every floweret call, 
From cedar of gray Lebanon 

To hyssop on the wall — 
What were my boasted knowledge worth 

Above a shining show, 
Did I not, by true science taught, 

The Root of Jesse know? 

Could I with Chaldee's sages rove 

O'er all the starry plain, 
And all the shining world explore, 

Sought out till now in vain — 



GO ! DREAM OF BY-FAST HOURS. 239 

What boots it, if its brightest gem 

Heaven give not to my eyes — 
And ne'er to my ecstatic view 

The Star of Jacob rise? 



GO! DREAM OF BY-PAST HOURS. 



G o ! dream of by-past hours : 

In retrospect once more 
Pluck fancy's gayest flowers, 

And revel in thy store. 
Go, seek thy native cot, 

Scene of affection free, 
Where pleasure cheered thy lot, 

Where love was all to thee. 

Do this, but never tell 

The heartless world thy dream; 
Its scorn would hope dispel, 

Would crush the fairy theme : 



240 



LUCY ANN, AT SIXTEEN. 



Do this, but in thy breast 
Let each fond wish expire ; 

For sorrows unreprest 

Are his who loves the lyre. 



LUCY ANN, AT SIXTEEN. 



While opens, Lucy Ann, on you 

The world's alluring, witching smile, 
While flowers of every form and hue 

Spring forth, your pathway to beguile, 
Dear Lucy, in the pleasant dawn 

Of hope, may real bliss be seen, 
And bland contentment gild your morn, 

And peace be yours at fond Sixteen. 



Life ? s but a flower, how frail the bloom ! 

It charms without, within is there • 
The worm that 's nourished to consume, 

The foe of beauty, baneful Care : 



LUCY ANN, AT SIXTEEN. 241 

Far from your bosom be the cares 
That lurk with cold forbidding mien, 

And, O kind Heaven ! avert the snares 
That folly spreads for gay Sixteen. 

Though cloudless suns for thee may rise, 

And bright the joys that for thee shine, 
O, who may say, these beauteous skies, 

These cloudless suns shall long be thine ? 
Yet long may these your day illume, 

And may no storm, with rigor keen, 
Assail the flower that loves to bloom 

On the fair cheek of sweet Sixteen. 

The fairy form must lose its grace, 

The sparkling eye must know decay, 
Time will each youthful charm efface 

As evening's robe obscures the day : 
Yet, while meek candor loves to dwell 

Those lips upon, and truth is seen, 
Lucy I these graces long shall tell 

The fadeless charms of bright Sixteen. 

Affection cheers our pathway, wild. 
Yet oft it dies, alas ! how soon — ■ 
21 



The star that on Love's morning smiled, 
Shines coldly on its dying noon ; 

Yet Lucy ! while the chaste caress 

Of friendship, soothes life's sorrows keen, 

Still may affection richly bless 

Your path, when fled is gay Sixteen. 



RELIGION AND RUM. 






An old Turk, learning that we were Americans, inquired if it 
was true that we sent out Missionaries to convert the Mohamme- 
dans, in ships laden with wine and spirits ? — De Kay's Sketches 
of Turkey. 

The Christian flouts the turbaned Turk ; 

Why mocketh he at us ? 
He sendeth hither proud ships with 

A blessing and a curse. 



His spangled flag flings out its stars 

Most bravely on our seas : 
And we beneath those stripes may pray, 

Or traffic — as we please. 



RELIGION AND RUM. 21.') 

Can the same wells of Araby 

Yield sweet and bitter too ? 
These dumb dogs — laugh they at our beards ? 

Great Allah! yes, they do. 

" Ho ! come, and win the gems of Heaven ! " 
Their dark -robed Mollahs cry ; 
Then shout their fellows — " We have Rum, 
And Brandies ; will ye buy ? " 

" Kneel to Messiah ! yours are crowns ; 

Reject — naught 's left but hell ; " 
" Here 's fourth proof — real New England, sirs ; 

Try, for we want to sell ! " 

Prophet! how would these muftis smile, 

Should we to Christ incline ; 
Not less their joy if we exchange 

Good sequins for their wine. 

Houris ! be ours the precepts which 

Content the faithful Turk, 
Rather than creeds in which base gold 

Is ever found to lurk. 



244 



MILLENNIAL MORN 



MILLENNIAL MORN! THY ROSY BEAMS. 



Millennial morn! thy rosy beams 
Already break and shine on high ; 

And from his couch the Day-spring seems 
To rush and glance along the sky. 

Error its mantling cloud rolls back, 
And fast and far fly shades of night ; 

The wheels are heard whose living track 
Is marked by Resurrection's light. 



*T is glorious, thus, our conquering God ! 

To greet the chariot of thy Son ; 
Oh, who that hath his war-plain trod, 

Would ever toils, so noble, shun ? 




Gird on thy sword, most Mighty ! sway 
The sceptre of unquestioned rule ; 

And marshal on thy glorious way 

The Bible, Tract, and Sunday-school. 

Not only age, but youth,, the call 

Shall hear, and hasten where unfurled 

Thy banners wave on Zion's wall, 
Symbols of freedom to a world. 



BY WHOM OF ALL THY CHOSEN, LORD. 



By whom of all thy chosen, Lord, 
Wilt thou the promised temple build ? 

Shall angel legions seize the sword, 
Nor sheath it till the toil's fulfilled? 

Earth's monarchs — in thy cause shall they 
With banners rally to the strife? 

And win with worldly arms the day, 
And take with spear the crown of life ? 
21* 



246 BY WHOM OF ALL THY CHOSEN, LORD. 

Oh, not by the embattled throng, 
Who travel on in fields of light, 

Nor by Earth's monarchs, marshalled strong, 
And burning for the glorious fight — 

But such as we, and feebler far, 
Shall in thy Name subdue the foe ; 

And weapons simple as these are, 
Be strong in Thee to lay him low. 






As faithful warriors of the cross, 
We ne'er can faint nor falter, since 

We count all conquest else, but loss, 
And love beyond all else, our Prince. 



INVOCATION. 247 



INVOCATION 



We ask Thee not, O God ! to bow 

Thy heavens, these sighs to hear; 
To those fair seats of life and song 

They fly, and reach thine ear; 
For thou art condescending still, 

When suppliants come to Thee ; 
Though thy pavilion is the cloud, 

And low and poor are we. 

Thou know'st we tabernacle where 

Envy and wrong abound ; 
In bosoms of our dearest trust 

Deceit is oft'nest found. 
Thou know'st that man to fellow man 

Is oft the direst foe; 
The streams of kindness in his soul 

Are tainted as they flow. 



248 



INVOCATION. 



For who hath pillowed all his heart 

On seeming honor's breast, 
Nor found, in sorrow's bitter doom, 

That refuge but a jest? 
Who ever sought some lofty hope, 

And said, here is my stay, 
Nor saw how like the summer sun 

It passed in clouds away ? 



Yes, he, the heritor of ill, 

In silence must it bide ; 
The world that wrings out bitter tears, 

Will yet those tears deride. 
But Thou, O God ! art not of clay ; 

To shield the wretch is thine ; 
'T is good to tell our cares to Thee, 

Who will to help incline. 

Man may, in selfishness, console 

The hapless child of need ; 
Yes, and bind up the broken heart 

When interest prompts the deed ; 
But Thou lov'st those who know Thee not, 

And thus dost man reprove ; 
Thou art — and there is none beside — - 

Disinterested Love. 



SIN, 



Immortal Sin, of heavenly birth ! 

With angels nursed till hurled to fire ; 
Thence creeping to deceive the earth — 

What art thou, serpent ? — what thy sire ! 

I know not, nor till blasts are blown 

From that high trump which wakes the world 

Shall mortals see thy dreadful throne, 
Or pierce the cloud that 's o'er thee curled. 

I know not — but thy slave I We been ; 

E'en now, redeemed, I feel thy power. 
I burn with blushes, that from Sin 

I ne'er have found release one hour. 



Some walk below on Beulah's ground; 

This side of heaven they catch the gales ; 
It may be so — yet I have found 

That o'er Perfection Sin prevails. 

Looks not the Sovereign Lord of All 
With wonder on his ruined plan ? 

The loss, beginning at the fall — 

The Death that lives where lives a man? 

Look not the blessed, in surprise, 
On systems rolling 'neath a curse ? 

Oh ! in those sweet angelic eyes 

Stands not one tear of grief for us! 

Mysteriously art thou entwined 

With all I think and say and do ; 

Affection, will, and soul and mind, 
The poison feel, and love it too. 

My heart is but a battle-field; 

It has been so since hope was mine — . 
Sword crosses sword, shield rings to shield ; 

Infernal influence meets divine. 



Thou hast my father, mother slain ! 

They seized the promise and are blest ; 
Destroyer, thou hast come again — 

My babe, my cherub is at rest. 

And thou hast killed the Lamb of God ! 

The Roman reared the felon tree, 
The Jew exulted in his blood — 

I charge the horrid crime on thee. 

Ne'er idly talk of roofs of gold, 
Inlaying heaven's eternal dome ; 

Or gates of pearl, whose leaves infold 
The righteous in their happy home ; 

Nor of the rubies, emeralds, gems, 
That blaze like suns amid the host 

"Whose myriads veil their diadems 
To Father, Son, and Holy Ghost ; — 

But tell me of a world so bright 

That Sin — a dark intruder there — 
Would die in its excess of light — 

And that 's the heaven which I would share ! 

1847. 



JAMES MUNROE AND COMPANY 

HAVE FOR SALE IN RICH BINDINQ8, 

THE POETICAL WORKS 

OP 

REV. WILLIAM B. TAP PAN, 

COMPLETE IN FOUR VOLUMES, VIZ.: 

POETRY OF THE HEART; 

SACRED AND MISCELLANEOUS POEMS; 

POETRY OF LIFE; 

*THE SUNDAY SCHOOL AND OTHER POEMS. 



dec 10 reoQ 



*Ofr— 6 
J13HS 



•dVHQ 



voiaaiAiv do S3±v±s Q3±iNn 



'ss^aouco ao A^rraan 



111 

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